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 answers 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

Best answer: 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