This thread is inspired by the Hearts of Palm one.
I’ve had pasta dishes in fancy restaurants that were flavored with truffle oil, but I couldn’t really taste any difference than what you’d expect pasta to taste like.
So, if I were to shave off a piece of this most treasured fungus, what would it taste like? Is there a difference in flavor between the black and white varieties?
Is it worth every expensive bite? Or is it just hype?
Has anybody here cooked with truffles? Or hunted for them?
I used to be married to someone in the exotic foods importing business. I have had all kinds of truffles, even the most expensive ones available. They are very distinctive tasting and not something that is easily compared to other tastes. The quality ones are also extremely strong tasting. It only takes a little bit to go from “Ummm, tastes fancy” to “it is overpowering, the dish is ruined.”. Quality truffles are rather nasty at high concentrations which is good because they are one of the most expensive food ingredients by the pound. I like them when used sparingly but I wouldn’t be disappointed if I never has one again. There is a big snob appeal to expensive truffles because of the rarity but that doesn’t always match the experience you get with them.
I am not that good at describing tastes. They taste extremely earthy and oily (because they are almost always stored or cooked in oil). Some people don’t like them at all but they can be an memorable ingredient if used correctly.
There have been related threads before. I started one of them.
Pretty much what **Shagnasty ** said, though I don’t think I’ve had the best in the world. I have had them at some of the best restaurants in the world, so maybe I have.
Like a lot of really high-end flavors, they’re both subtle and overwhelming, if that makes any sense at all. The first time or two you have them, you might think “well, that’s not a big deal”, but then something lingers in your head and after the third or fourth time, you begin to pick out the earthy, mushroomy perfume they bring to a dish and it starts to become something you find yourself looking for. (And yes, I know that’s a really over the top way to put it, and I kind of hate myself for saying it that way cuz it sounds so pretentious, but I can’t really think of a better way to describe it)
Saffron has a similar thing going on - it’s almost undetectable until you figure it out, and then you can’t miss it.
It tastes slightly similar to garlic, and kind of mushroomy, but more earthy, and just like Athena says, once you taste it in your food, you won’t forget it. The restaurants probably didn’t use enough of it to be able to discern, which is almost a good thing, as it can become overpowering easily. You can get a small bottle of truffle oil for not much money at the grocery store. Take it home and smell it, and then try adding a few drops to pasta sauce, either red sauce, or a cream or cheese sauce.
A shop here that demos it puts creamy potato soup into dixie cups, and has you try it before and after adding a drop or two of truffle oil to it.
One of my favorite dishes is freshly made pasta tossed in olive oil and then tossed and scraped in a Parmesan wheel, and finally topped with freshly shaved truffles. When the truffle is good, the whole dish has an earthiness that is just delectable. This is something that some of the Italian restaurants around offer when truffles are available, and oh, I’m so glad when they do!
I have a bottle of truffle oil I got for Christmas, it’s not very pungent like I thought it would be, in fact it’s a little bland. It has small bits of black truffle on the bottom. I’ve heard this stuff is olive oil with a fleck of truffle and some kind of truffle flavoring. But i use it anyway on pasta and vegetables.
I have heard that most (all?) truffle oil is completely void of actual truffles. It’s chemically synthesised flavours - if your bottle has actual bits of black truffle in it, that’s a very expensive present.
If they say anything like truffle flavoured or scented they definitely contain no truffles.
It’s a rounded, earthy taste, and the odor mixes with the taste in the back of your nose too. I don’t think it’s anything like garlic at all. More like a very rich scallop but not really like that either.
Another post I made about truffles:
I was recently in Tuscany and saw a restaurant that said “Tartuffi Fresci” outside. So I made my girlfriend come back that evening and had bistecca con tartuffi. I was disappointed when it arrived as I couldn’t smell any truffle from the sauce. But then the most wonderful thing happened: the waitress came with two whole fresh truffles dug from the mountains nearby. And when she asked “nero o bianco?” I tentatively asked for both… and she grated HALF OF EACH TRUFFLE ONTO MY STEAK. I nearly wept with joy. And they were astonishingly good. And the whole experience cost €12. Goddamn it, amazing.
The first time I ate at the French Laundry, they offered a white truffle supplement for $50.
No brainer, I thought… For a $500 meal, what’s an extra $50?
Three of us were dining and the white truffle course was a sampling of three special carb dishes; fresh pasta, risotto, and polenta. They brought out a beautiful box (probably made for cigars) and opened it at our table. Inside was a pool cue-sized white truffle which got shaved onto our dishes.
For a 6 1/2 hour, 22-course meal, I still remember how amazing that truffle was…
Jjimm said it better than I could. Truffles are incredible. The best ones aren’t stored in oil but in a box of arborio rice. That way you keep the truffle and truffle scented arborio rice bonus!
The oils I’ve tried have all been fairly insipid. The Spice House sells a truffle salt that is fantastic though! I highly recommend it.
The first few times, I didn’t detect anything and I am curious about new tastes.
Then I had a very good truffle mayonaise a few weeks ago, and it was nice. Not “vavavoom”, but nice.
The crude way to describe the taste is like garlic with a bit if gas. Not gasoline, but cooking gas. Plus an earthy, oily basis.
There are lots of other tastes that are just as subtle but that I would prefer, if I had too choose. Like non-canned artichoke. Yum.
I recently picked up both black and white truffle oil from La Tourangelle. I haven’t opened the white, but the black is amazing - heady, strong, very reminiscent of truffles. It lists “Black Truffle Extract” as the flavoring. I’m very happy with it.
For black truffles, I’d say macadamia nut oil, but stronger, + roasted pine nuts + tiny touch of anise + deep rich black earth, like a raw potato grown in a pine forest.
The white ones, more anise, less earth, and something else.
There’s a lot of “something else” in both, but that’s as close as I bring it to things you may have experienced before.
The only time I had truffle was when it was stuffed in homemade fresh ravioli with cheese and dressed with a light cream sauce. Absolutely delicious. The earthiness permeates through the whole dish. TruCelt’s flavor description is quite good IMO.
Edit - Not sure if truffles have ever been used in chocolate truffles. Chocolate truffles were named for their resemblance to the fungus.
I have made dessert dishes with chocolate and truffles - the earthiness of the truffle and a really bitter chocolate are nice together, throw in an element of pine oil and maca root and you have something really interesting.
The chocolate dessert is named for the appearance of the truffle, indeed, but think of a cocoa-powder-covered truffle, not a chocolate dipped one.