What is saba?

May 22, 2006 9:10 AM

What is the condiment "saba"?

Last night at Delfina in San Francisco, I had a cheese tasting that included "Parmigiano Reggiano with saba" (menu). A little googling today has come up with nothing. It was a dark brown liquid (like soy sauce or balsamic vinegar) but had a very mild flavor that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

posted by rorycberger to food & drink (7 comments total)

Seems like it's a product of Dean & Deluca.
posted by justkevin at 9:15 AM on May 22, 2006

According to egullet, it is the reduced grape juice out of which balsamic vinegar is made.
posted by QIbHom at 9:17 AM on May 22, 2006

It's a type of vinegar, according to this food glossary.
posted by Quietgal at 9:17 AM on May 22, 2006

That Hormel link is really confused - is it the vinegar itself, or the condiment (I've heard it called grape must) that is used to make the vinegar? I think it's the latter - the former is just balsamic vinegar as far as I know.
posted by altolinguistic at 9:25 AM on May 22, 2006

Grape must is the juice used to make balsamic vinegar. This juice is further reduced to make saba. Saba however is basically sweet grape syrup.

It's distinctly not a vinegar it just stems from the same process. Though it is sometimes combined with balsamic to add some sour to it.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:08 AM on May 22, 2006

Further discussion here; apparently it's also called vin cotto (literally 'cooked wine').
posted by languagehat at 11:25 AM on May 22, 2006

I was looking for saba and couldn't find it, even at a specialist Italian deli. Then I found a bottle at my local supermarket. Fattoria Giacobazzi, IIRC. I had this on a dish with beets and thought it was try-this-at-home delicious.
posted by sagwalla at 3:46 AM on May 23, 2006