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I made the balsamic reduction 75% as directed. It became syrupy when sat in a bowl of hot water; however, when used on a salad it became toffee like. Can I mix in more of the same balsamic to fix it?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

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This event was on March 12, 2024

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Dan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Linda Ellis

I made the balsamic reduction 75% as directed. It became syrupy when sat in a bowl of hot water; however, when used on a salad it became toffee like. Can I mix in more of the same balsamic to fix it?

Answer

You can use the balsamic, um, but just do it very lightly. In fact, I would, I might even recommend a touch of water. Um, and depending on how much you've made, just add slow slowly to it, right? So you can add a little balsamic or a little bit of water, try to teaspoon a time and then whisk it a little bit, you know, till you get the thickness that you're looking for. And that'll actually be fine. That's, it's very common. Um, if you have a reduction, you know, once it starts to cool off that it starts to solid up a little bit. Um, so adding a little bit of water, or in this case, if you wanna add a little bit more balsamic to it, just to whisk it in, just do it very slowly to start out. Um, and whisk as you go.

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

*Dan Marek* is a chef educator who has been teaching vegan and vegetarian cooking for over 15 years. At Rouxbe, he is our Director of Plant-Based Culinary and Development where he helps develop content, classes and builds courses for many of our partners. Dan is a board member of Slow Food Austin, the Institute of Child Nutrition, and Conscious Capitalism. He has earned his BA in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University. Prior to his role with Rouxbe, Dan worked with Whole Kids Foundation training teachers and food service at schools across the country on nutrition and culinary best practices. He also worked as a Healthy Eating Educator at Whole Foods Market’s flagship store in Austin, TX, was a personal chef for some of Austin’s elite business people, taught classes in culinary techniques at Austin Community College, The Natural Epicurean, and Le Cordon Bleu. Dan also regularly volunteers cooking or speaking about nutrition for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Marathon Kids, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas.