If you haven't cooked with balsamic vinegar, these recipes will show you how its sweet-acidic pungency can make a dish come alive.

Balsamic vinegars range in price from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars per bottle. The pricier stuff is the real thing: Trebbiano grape juice aged 12 years in wooden casks according to a time-honored Italian process. (As the years pass, the fermenting juice, concentrated by evaporation, is placed in increasingly smaller barrels of different woods--oak, ash, juniper--so that it can develop a deep range of flavors.) Tasted and graded by a consortium of experts, this tradizionale balsamic is rich, sweet, and intense. A few drops on strawberries or meat are enough to dramatically change the flavors of a finished dish.

For cooking, the best balsamic vinegars are labeled condimento balsamico and are more reasonably priced. These have a slightly more acidic, but no less complex, nature. Aged for shorter periods and by slightly different methods, these vinegars, though not rated by the consortium, are still quite tasty.

Our Picks: Fini Condimento, a balsamic aged in casks of juniper, chestnut, and mulberry; Gaeta Condimento, aged four years in antique barrels; Cavalli Condimento of Reggio Emilia.

Buying Tips: Look for the words condimento or tradizionale on the label. Though most of the balsamic vinegars you'll find at the supermarket are just a mixture of grape juice, vinegar, and caramel coloring, Alessi's Balsamic Vinegar Aged 20 Years is an exception.

Storage Tips: Keep tightly capped at room temperature.