◆ In House

La Barrica

Balsamic & Honey Cultured Butter

€18.50

Cultured butter marbled with balsamic of Modena, reduced to syrup so it folds in without breaking the emulsion, and rounded out with honey.

Origin España

Producer Zales & Rego

Volume 120 g

Appearance

Cream butter marbled with dark balsamic streaks; glossy

Aroma

Butter cream, cooked grape, fig, oak

Taste · Primary

Sweet butter with rounded balsamic acidity

Taste · Secondary

Fig, raisin, treacle, oak, gentle wood-aged sweetness

Texture

Slightly looser than plain butter, glossy, marbled

Finish

Long, sweet-acid-fat, with a balsamic-aromatic resonance

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A cultured butter infused with vinagre de Módena and a measure of miel, the Modena-balsamic-and-honey axis on a cultured-cream base. Cultured butter is folded with reduced balsamic and honey, stabilised with ascorbic acid and seasoned with sea salt.

The technical discipline is in the reduction: raw balsamic carries enough free acetic acid to break a butter emulsion if added directly, so the vinagre de Módena is reduced to syrup before incorporation, concentrating the cooked-must sugars and lowering the free acid until the balsamic folds in as a stable, emulsion-friendly element. The result is a cream-coloured butter marbled with dark mahogany streaks: butter cream, fig, raisin, treacle, oak, rounded balsamic acidity.

The Producer

Zales & Rego - Alcorcón, Madrid

The line starts in a botica in Mondoñedo, Galicia, where remedies, conserves and spices once shared the same shelf. Alonzo Rego carried the trade to Cádiz in 1776, then across the Atlantic to Veracruz in 1795. In 1888, Don Ismael Rego y Salcedo gave the house its formal name. Seven generations later, Zales & Rego returns to the old world, composing and selecting from a workshop in Alcorcón, Madrid: compose, select, preserve the excellent.

Founded 1888

Generations Seven, documented in archive

Workshop Alcorcón, Madrid

Philosophy Compose. Select. Preserve the Excellent.

The Process

Reduce the balsamic first, or it breaks the butter.

Raw balsamic carries enough free acid to split a butter emulsion on contact, so the vinegar of Modena is reduced to syrup first, concentrating its cooked-must sugars and lowering the acid until it folds in cleanly. Honey joins for a second layer of sweetness, and the whole thing sets into a cream butter marbled with dark mahogany streaks.

Base Cultured butter

Reduction Balsamic of Modena, reduced to syrup

Sweetener Honey

Texture Marbled, glossy

“Balsamic wants to break a butter. Ours doesn't get the chance.”

Zales & Rego · España