A TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR Balsamic vinegar is docile but also touchy. If you do not control it, you run the risk of ruining the dish. It is a curious fact that no precise dose can be assigned. The reason is that every batch of balsamic vinegar is highly individual - such is its nature and such the desire of its makers. Therefore, before using it, taste a drop on the tip of a spoon and judge its round flavor or its cutting edge occasion by occasion. Once you have done this, you can decide whether to use it on a veal escalope or on a nice fresh salad. Thus, its use is not so much an application of a fixed formula as a use dictated by the particular qualities of that particular vinegar at that particular moment.
However, there are some rules or rather recommendations based on the centuries of old traditions in and around balsamic vinegar. The most important to these is that it should continue to follow the classical order of salt, balsamic vinegar, oil.
The fact that this vinegar is quite literally precious has had the negative effect of its parsimonious use. In fact, a good rule of thumb is one teaspoon per person. Special cooking situations will require the special ability-knowledge of the cook to determine the correct amount.