The Secrets in the Barrel

We pulled up to a beautiful yellow house and I was a little confused. It was in a neighborhood and didn’t look anything like I expected. We walked into an extraordinary lobby with no production room in sight.

Our tour guide began by talking about the family and the house. The family began making Balsamic in 1850 and the house is the original location. The art has been passed down for 5 generations and nothing except the grape juice boiled has changed.

At this point we headed up three fights of stairs to the attic. When I entered the room the smell of sweet balsamic filled the air like syrup. I wanted to bottle it and wear it as perfume! They use the article because it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter,
Mimicking the climate the grapes were grown in and the artisans before controlled environments.

The woman explained that the barrels are all originals. The oldest is from 1860 and the just build new barrels around the old ones to patch leaks so the old flavors are never lost. The new barrels are then Painted in the old vinegar sediments mixed with water (hence the black appearance). This sediment is naturally resistant to humidity and protects the barrels and vinegar.

The process begins with Trebbiano (white) and Lambrusco (red) grapes. Only the juice is used and the justice is poured into a large cooking pot and cooked for two days. The percent of white to red grapes (and the order of the barrel woods) is the only difference between the 30 certified Modena traditional balsamic producing families. This family uses 80% white and 20% red juice for a sweeter (rather than a more acidic balsamic).

After two days the balsamic goes into the first and largest barrel. Each barrel has no cap, only a cloth covering the opening. This allows the balsamic to evaporate and reduce.

Every year they use a syringe to replace the evaporated vinegar. The smallest looses 10% so 10% is taken from the second smallest and placed in the last. Then 20 % is taken from the third smallest and placed in the second smallest. This happens with all six barrels and 60% is taken from the largest and placed in the second largest.

The barrels are made out of Cherry, chestnut, mulberry, oak, or juniper. The Oder the balsamic moves through these barrels also defines the families style and the flavor of the balsamic. The barrels are so fragile they have never been moved, only the long syringe moves balsamic from one barrel to the next.

A traditional Modena Balsamic Vinegar must be a minimum of 12 years old (earns a yellow cap and traditional band). The 25 year earns a gold cap and band. The small barrel that this 25 year old is in is called the “queen barrel”. It takes130 L cooked grape must to make five .5 L bottles. Also, The producers cannot bottle their own traditional balsamic. Anything younger than 12 months they can, like their flavored vinegars and “Classico” vinegar. The controllers have the bottles and each batch is tasted and judged before it earns it’s special short bottle and colored cap.

A barrel, empty, sells for about 40,000€, and the producer has 3,000 barrels on sight. They produce the vinegar only with grape juice, nothing is added unless it is a flavored vinegar. Those have only white grapes plus pure juice of what ever flavor you want, like Fuji apples.

At our tasting we tried every variety of vinegar available:
#1 – 100% white grapes aged only 5 years in an ash wood barrel. It was very sweet and is good for Fish, salad/arugula, fresh fruit.

2- 100% white grapes aged 8 years in an ash barrel. It is Sweeter/ more concentrated and is enjoyed on the Same food as # 1

3- Classico – 80% white 20% red. It’s aged for 6 years in the exact same way as the 12 and 25. It is good on Salads, tomatoes, mozzarella everyday dressing. Semi-sweet flavoring makes it versatile.

4- Traditional with yellow cap – aged 12 years and is only eaten in small (drop sized) amount on meats, omelet, proteins, risotto, etc. Semi-sweet with layers of flavor.

5- Traditional with gold label – aged for 25 years,and is used on dessert food and as a dinner finisher for digestion.

Flavored Vinegars included:
Aged 5 years White grapes + juice
Fig – cheese or meat
orange – Salads and fresh fruit
vanilla – desserts
mint – desserts
Fiji apple – misc

We also tried a Walnut liquor that was 40% alcohol. It just tasted like nuts to me though. We also tried a balsamic and caramelized onion marmalade which was interesting.

I really enjoyed learning how my favorite food condiment was made. The tour guid was lovely and it was fun to taste the quality compared to what we are use to.

We drove home after this (3 hours again) and went to get vegetables. I ended up with chicken, mushroom rice, and cooked spinach. Then we walked a bit and was the Florence Boar. We rubbed his nose for luck and dropped coins in to ensure a return some day. We finished the day with Grom (extra dark chocolate,
Milk & mint, and raspberry). We spent the evening packing out bags since tomorrow is our last full day here 😦 It will be a fun last day, but I’m sad to feel it coming to a close! I hope to post tomorrow evening, but our final meal goes till midnight so we will see! We hope to see the inside of the Duomo tomorrow! Talk to you later!

Fruit Juice – a lesson in Extra Virgin Olive oil!

Pruneti is a 4th Generation family Extra Virgin Olive Oil company located in Chianti. They only produce four types of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, there are only 3 types of olives and they make separate oils from each type. The last type is a mix of all three types of olives.

First our tour guide talked about the vision of the two sons currently running the facility. They want to respect the old ways, but they believe you shouldn’t sacrifice everything in the name of tradition, accept only the changes that will improve the product. They also consider olive Oil a fruit juice because the process is similar to pressing and squeezing juice out of oranges. Their products are 100% olive oil, so nothing is added to a batch to improve taste. The flavor comes from the juicing process and it’s steps.

Their production facility has 150 acres of fields and 2,600 olives trees. All trees are harvested by hand by 60 seasonal workers from October to November. This is different than the large industries because the have to use machines because they plant and produce such large quantities. Pruneti focuses on quality not quantity. He explained that even though they only use three types of olives, that in Tuscany alone there are more than 250 types of olives, while Spain only has 50 kinds left due to large industries only wanting the heavy oil producing olives.

We then moved into the production room. (yes it takes ONE living room sized room to product quality oil.) he explained that the highest quality oil comes from olives pressed ASAP after picking. Depending on the year 400 kg of olives produce about 50-60L oil. Their production presses an olive about 4 to 5 hours after it has been picked. This keeps the olive from changing, oxidizing, and loosing nutrients. Olives are also pressed cold (27C) to preserve their colors, taste, polyphenols, and vitamins. (The
industry tends to heat olives because the olive will product more juice that way) To prevent any oxidization when pressing and slicing the machinery replaces oxygen with nitrogen.

The steps/machines needed to produce olive oil are:
1. Cleaner – remove twigs and leaves and dust rom picking using cold water.

2. Pressing machine – breaks olives and makes olive paste. This Machine can crush or slice (depending on the olive type)

3. Mixer- Put paste into a machine that mixes slowly to physically separate oil (10 to 20 minutes)

4. Large Centrifuge – to separate oil+water from all other compounds (fast and loud)

5. Small centrifuge- this one moved in the opposite direction and delayed the water and oil. Oil floats up and water drains down.

6. Filter- oil is pushed though a paper flirted to have clean oil. Oil needs to be filtered so no pieces enter the bottle and turn it rancid quicker.
7. Tanks- Finished oil is stored in stainless steel tanks with out oxygen and below 27 C
8. Bottler- the oil is bottled once and order is placed by a buyer.

Olive oil is not better with age unlike wine so they try to produce and sell the oil quickly. They produce about 40,000- 60,000 L per year depending on the quality of the harvest.

The left over remnants like the pit and skin are either burned like wood (pits) or turned in to gas (skins) for energy. They are trying to find a way to purify the water that comes out of the olives and use it to water the fields. They call it producing “Energy from Rubbish”. They are working to get 100% use from each olive.

We moved upstairs next to the tasting room to learn more about their product and how to taste it. Extra Virgin Olive Oil acidity ranges from .12(top quality) to .8 (bottom limit to be called Extra Virgin). The time between picking and pressing and last centrifuge determine acidity. Oil color doesn’t matter because the type of olive can alter the color. In general green is younger/better oil, but this isn’t always true. Only smell and taste can dictate quality.

The proper way to test oil is to smell it first and then taste it. To smell you cover the top with one hand to trap the smell and warm the bottom with the other to increase the intensity. After about 30 seconds hold the cup near your nose, remove the top hand, and smell. A good oil should smell fresh and like herbs or grass. To taste the oil you have to take only a small amount (4-5 drops) in your mouth, rest it on your tongue and sip in air. This removes the water on your tongue and allows the oil to settle and you to taste the real flavor. Here are the smell and tasting. Results from our 3 oils:
1. Lecanti – smell fresh cut grass (good), grass, spice ( fresh vegitale fruitiness and spicy ness) pungent
2. Pachino – soft smell, vegitale and then intense spicy after
3. Frantoio – arugula smells. Butter spicy and vegetable
4.Mystery – low quality, soapy favor, no smell olive oil

While we waited for our food we learned the story of the black chianti rooster. When Italy was divided by cities in the medieval times Chianti was desired by Florence and Siena. To settle who would get Chianti they created a race. A man and horse from each city were chosen and they met in the middle of the two cities. The race was to begin when the “rooster crows”. The Siena people took care in choosing their horse and rider while the Florentines took care in choosing and caring for the rooster. They made sure the rooster would crow in the dead of night and startle the Siena man while the florentine would be prepared to ride. Florence one the race and chianti adopted the rooster as their symbol.

After this story our tasting food arrived. It consisted of:
Mozzarella with poor quality oil
Mozzerella with oil #3
bread with cheese with oil #1
bread with Canalinni beans with oil #2

The poor quality oil was still soapy
But the rest were delicious combos. Next they brought us a sampling of Fabbri pasta (old grain pasta from previous post) with the mixed olive oil and fresh Parmesan cheese. It was excellent!! We got a red, young, standard food chianti wine with our meal. It was decent with the pasta but not the best match.

Lastly we finished with chocolate gelato with a drizzle of olive oil. (Yes you read that right, olive oil!) honestly, it was great! The flavors blended perfectly and the texture was really creamy.

After we tasted we thanked the owners, bought some oil and headed back to Florence for our pasta making course! 😀 (see more in next post.) it was a fascinating experience learning about pasta and oil. I hope you learned something too!

Behind the Olive

On May 30th we spent 6:00 to 8:30 In an olive oil workshop. We spent about 45 minutes learning about olive oil and an hour cooking. This was a fascinating class about one of my favorite foods!

We talked about olive oil (OO) production and I learned that even though Italy has a large quantity of olive trees across the whole country, only a few areas have the correct trees for OO. The oldest olive tree is in Sadengna and it is over 1,200 years old! The “most appreciated” producers of OO in Italy are Liguria, Puglia (largest producer in italy but not best quality), Sicilia, and Toscana.

Puglia has tall trees (olive oil trees are normally short) and there picking method is different. Olives are harvested when they are ripe (not under ripe like most producers so that lowers the quality) and trees are beaten so they fall and this can hurt the olive. Puglia OO tend to have a high acidity. They have realized this and are Slowly changing their methods to improve their product.

All other producers use the old fashion method of producing OO. The olives are Collected by hand into containers and brought to a frantoio for pressing. Before the olives are pressed they are Washed by hand and washed by a machine in cold water. The clean olives are put under stone weights and are pressed in to a flat thin “pancake” known as “olive paste”. Many paste pancakes are stacked on top of each other and then pressed slowly. The oil seeps out as the stack is pressed and collected. The oil collected is then separated from the water and other pieces in the oil by a centrifuge. Th remaining past is called Sansa and can be used for for animal feeding and used to produced other cheap olive oil. The Sansa paste is treated with chemicals so the produce more oil. This OO is VERY poor quality. So if you see a OO bottle reading Oil de Sansa JUST SAY NO!

The normal Collection period for olives is from the middle of October to December (depending in how long the cold holds off, it normally ends mid November. The olives that are picked before they are ripe (October olives) produce the best quality olive oil. Producers can use the later olives closer to ripeness to make oil, but it hinders the quality. The later olives are used because they make more OO from fewer. The conversion is: 100kg olives = 9 (quality the best/October olives) to 12-14 (December olives) kg oil.

Extra virgin means that the OO came from the first press of pancakes. The Seeds are ground it to the pressed olives to add acidity. Acidity defines the label of extra virgin (EV). To be an EV the acidity needs to be below 0.8 % . The younger the olive the less acidic it is.

How to recognize a good oil in the USA:
1. DOP label. This is a Red and yellow circle found in the bottle. This means the bottle meats the European communion’s specification. = DOP
2.IGP – blue circle this means that it has met Italy’s specifications. This label can also be found on veggies, cheese, meat, etc. The list of IGP products can be found online.

New/young OO is green and not transparent. As it ages it becomes yellow and transparent. Young OO should be filtered before spring because the remnants that are in the bottle can turn the oil rancid in the heat. (60F)

After buying an oil keep it in a steel pouring kettle. This completely stops light from entering the oil and causing reactions to change the oil. Any Good oil will be found in a dark green bottle. Also, never fill a bottle to the top! Oil swells during full moons so it’s volume will increase and seep out of the bottle.

Olive oil is great for cooking, but losses some nutritional value when heated. EVOO has an unknown smoke point because they are all different. OO is good for deep fat frying under 400F. Consuming OO raw is the best for health because it maintains it’s omega-3 fatty acids. Omega – 3 makes it a healthy oil because it promotes HDL. Olive Oil is the best type of fat nutritionally. Also coco butter is similar, but the taste is not as good and crazy expensive. If you buy a good oil you can freeze it in small amounts to save the young original flavor.

After our lesson on Olive oil we talked about the recipes we were going to make and why the ingredients fit our trips theme. We make Zucchini flower risotto and Eggplant Parmesan and ricotta roll ups.
Genova Liguria is where the pesto recipe was created and perfected.
Pine nuts were grown on tirreno coast trees all on coast. Basil is grown in the south and center and Greece. Basil season June to early October so but it fresh! Parmesan, if course, comes from Emilia Romagna. Eggplants typical in the south or Italy and the olives topping the roll ups were IGP Special olives.

AREAS OF OO PRODUCTION:
All production takes place below the Liguria and Emilia romagna southern line, except for the Garta lake in the north. This is the only place it is grown above the line.
Other OO producing countries are: Spain, south France, Greece, andNorth Africa but Italy is known for the best quality.

After the lecture we cooked! My station make the eggplant roll ups and the pesto for the zucchini flower risotto. It was a blast and all the food tasted okay. Our seasoning needed work on the pesto (we left out pine nuts for Taylor since she’s allergic.) I liked the eggplant roll-ups much better with Parmesan than the ricotta, but that’s just me!

I promise to try and post the wine tasting soon but I’ve been so busy! I found it fascinating and have a lot to say which is why I haven’t posted the final draft yet. It’s in the works! I’m exhausted from my day at Rome! Hopefully I’ll be caught up soon!