Never had this experience before. Got some almonds from Trader Joe’s that were flavored with truffle oil. But each nut tasted as if it were coated with garlic. Not strong, but obvious. I’ve always thought that truffles tasted sort of woody and meaty, but never got anything like garlic before. So my question is, WTF?
All the foodies hang out in Café Society, so let’s move this from General Questions.
samclem, moderator
Or to be a bit more specific, the label says that the almonds have black truffle sea salt and truffle flavor added.
Truffles taste like truffles and not really anything else IMO. It is a very strong flavor that is instantly recognizable if it is added to a dish in any significant quantity. I guess deeply earthy and musky is one of the better descriptors for it but they don’t taste like garlic other than the fact that they are both strong flavors. Frankly, almonds with a significant truffle flavor doesn’t sound like a good combination to me but almonds and garlic does. You should probably be happy that their labeling isn’t completely accurate.
I had a disappointing truffle oil experience. My take on it was to save money they took the vat of oil and just passes a truffle over it close enough that the air vibrations of the truffle impacted the oil, sort of like homeopathic truffle oil.
I assume something similar or a mixup in your case.
I have had truffles - real, very expensive truffles many times, and it is not a flavor to be used casually. Good quality plain pasta with just olive oil and truffles is a great dish unless you use just a little too much like I did more than once and then becomes an overpowering taste that you will struggle to get out of your mouth and memory for the next few hours. Garlic is versatile and goes great with lots of flavors. Truffles don’t. You have to be really careful when to use it and know the exact quantity needed or it will ruin a dish before you can say STOP!
Sad fact - the vast majority of ‘truffle oil’ doesn’t contain any actual truffles. Real truffles are too expensive for that. Instead, it is an artificial flavor cooked up in a food lab. That means that they can make it taste however they want. Perhaps they found that almonds with a strong truffle flavor profile are as nasty as I imagine they would be so they made it much less strong on the truffle flavoring and stronger on the more versatile garlic flavoring.
It’s probably the added “truffle flavour” that’s the culprit as real truffles do not/should not taste like garlic.
However, I remember a Nouvelle American cuisine restaurant in SF that served ravioli with shavings of what they called “Pacific truffles”, and that had a distinct garlicky aroma and kind of a shallot-flavour to it. I’ve never encountered this with French or Italian truffles so I thought it was an American thing. Maybe they’re trying to recreate that.
Oh, and stay away from truffle oil. They’re not worth the bottle they’re contained in. Use olive oil and truffle salt, instead.
I had the same experience with “truffle flavoured” olive oil - pure garlic smell and taste.
Quelle coincidence. Saturday night, for the first and last time, I had fries cooked in truffle oil. Why for the last time? Well, they smelled like sock sweat, and the aftereffects weren’t much better. I suppose they tasted okay, but I couldn’t be sure, because I was wincing every time I put one in my mouth. Why did I keep eating them? Because someone else was paying and I wanted to be a good guest. Wasn’t anything like garlic, though. I don’t love garlic, but I can consume it without flinching.
No. I could probably think of things that taste less like truffle than garlic, for example watermelon, but it’s still not a particularly related flavor. Possibly the closest related flavor that I can think of would be fermented bamboo.
The one time I tasted it, it had a strongly pungent flavor but garlic didn’t come to mind. It tasted exactly the way the acrylic fingernail chemicals at the nail salon smell.
I beg, plead, to differ.
Stick your nose in a jar of black truffles, and garlic-ish notes do suggest themselves, especially if you’be never smelled truffles before, and, like with all novel experiences, you unconsciously/consciously compare it to things you know.
Stick your nose in a jar of white truffles, and garlic bathed in gasoline may greet you.
Truffle salt is worth considering. It’s powerful, so use sparingly. The house smells of it if you leave a little dust on the counter. Summer truffles aren’t worth it.
About “chemical” additives: truffle odor, vanilla, the scent of lilies, underarm smell, are all chemicals. If the chemical is synthesized properly, it’s the same goddamn thing. If they can’t do it, or change it for this or that reason not to your liking, then the word can get thrown about as a pejorative.
Using truffle oil takes a little practice, using the right amount for the application or the cooking technique, letting this or that vaporize away before the dish is good.
Frying in it is bizarre, but God bless anyone for trying it. The base olive oil can fry up to a certain temperature, but God knows what happens to the other flavor components when zapped like that.
I don’t know if there are genetic aspects related to peoples’ sensitivity to and ability to discern the components in truffles, but based on the reports here, I’m thinking that it’s possible that some people detect a garlic odor/taste, while others do not. In any case, since some people have reported noticing this phenomenon, I’ve got my answer. Thanks, Dopers.