By JANET K. KEELER, from staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 9, 2002

A weekly serving of food news and views

deconstructing
explanations from the inside out

balsamic vinegar

Your prized $20 bottle of balsamic vinegar is likely just a good-quality wine vinegar flavored with herbs and caramel to mimic the flavor of the real deal. If you owned a bottle of authentic balsamic vinegar, you probably wouldn't be making salad dressing with it. Not at about $80 for 4 ounces.

Aceto balsamico tradizionale comes from Modena, Italy, not far from Parma and Reggio, the homes of real Parmesan cheese and prosciutto. In Modena, balsamic vinegar is made from the unfermented juice of the region's wine grapes, mostly trebbiano. By Italian law, a product that carries the label balsamico tradizionale in Italy must be aged at least 12 years, usually in wooden barrels. The grape juice is boiled in copper cauldrons before being stored in barrels.

During the aging process, the vinegar is moved to progressively smaller barrels of different woods that include oak, chestnut, mulberry, ash, juniper, locust or cherry. Each wood lends its particular aroma and flavor to the vinegar, a word that comes from France and means sour wine.

Authentic balsamic vinegar is expensive because it takes a large number of grapes to make a small amount of vinegar. This intensely flavored vinegar is not used by the cupful to make vinaigrettes in Italy but is savored by the dropful on grilled steaks, slivers of Parmesan cheese or ripe strawberries. At most, a few drops would be added to a vinaigrette.

Balsamic vinegar has clout that red wine vinegar does not. That, in part, is what spawned the imitations we most often buy. We like the trendiness and fuller taste but not the price tag of the real thing. So far, the vinegar police have not come calling.

cooking class

Don't throw out egg whites left after you make custards or other dishes that require lots of yolks. Refrigerate them for a few days or freeze them for up to two months in air-tight containers. The egg whites can be used for meringues, angel food cake, souffles or consomme.

constant comment

"Fish, to taste right, must swim three times -- in water, in butter and in wine."
-- Polish proverb

this web site cooks

www.martinisonline.com

Martini devotees won't recognize most of the drink recipes on this site as real martinis. A traditional martini is gin and maybe a little vermouth, not blue curacao, whiskey or amaretto, for James Bond's sake. These days, though, vodka martinis are trendy, especially among those who belly-ring up to martini bars. Martinisonline.com, not to be read as "Martin is online," celebrates the drink in the long-stemmed glass with recipes, trivia and book reviews. It even has a list of martini bars around the world. When in Berlin, stop by Quasimodo. Or maybe the Piano Lounge in the United Arab Emirates.

zap it clean

A tip from Real Simple magazine: To clean your microwave, heat a bowl of water on high power for 5 to 10 minutes. Keep the door closed for several more minutes to allow the steam to do its magic. Using pot holders, carefully remove the bowl of water. Then wipe the walls of the oven -- almost effortlessly.

liquid guidelines

Weight Watchers offers these tips to help dieters control the number of calories they consume from beverages.

• Serve noncaloric drinks when desirable and appropriate.
• Choose solid over liquid. Eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice, vegetables instead of vegetable juice. Although it's a great source of vitamin C and potassium, fruit juice lacks the fiber of solid fruit.
• Think water all the time.
• Dilute calories in drinks containing alcohol. Order wine spritzers, use diet soda as a mixer in cocktails. Alternate "virgin" and "hard" drinks during social events. Go for light beer.

tricky veggies

Kids won't eat their vegetables? Parents magazine offers these tips:

• Make buttered pasta shells with frozen peas and corn. The vegetables hide in the shells so they're not so noticeable.
• Grate carrots and mushrooms into marinara sauce.
• Layer spinach into your child's favorite lasagna.
• Add grated zucchini to the meat when making meatballs.

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