Everyone seems to go nuts over truffles (the fungus, not the candy). I don’t know. I’ve heard how expensive they can be, so I haven’t sought any out. I’ve seen them combined in foods (e.g., cheese) and assumed that the cheese would overpower the fungus.
Last week I bought mozzarella-and-black truffle flatbread from Trader Joe’s and tried it. It was tasty. I’d buy it again. But I have to admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that I was eating truffles. My overall impression was only that the product tasted good, only I seemed to pay more attention to the garlic. When I did think about it, I wondered what all the fuss is about. Sure, this is a frozen food that wasn’t very expensive; so perhaps the truffles weren’t ‘gourmet quality’. I think it would have been just as good with many other kinds of mushroom.
I don’t think the truffle that’s in that flatbread is the famous uber-pricey stuff from the south of France. I’ve heard that truffles also can grow in places like Asia, but that they’re a different variety and are next to flavorless. However, they’re technically truffles, so a product can be labeled as containing them and not be legally incorrect.
In addition, the seasons can affect the flavor of truffles. The only ones I ever bought were the type which come in a tiny jar, and they were “summer truffles”, which I read afterward have nowhere near the legendary flavor of winter truffles. However, they were rather intensely flavored, and I was able to taste a bit of what all the foodies were talking about. It’s a heavy, rich, earthy, almost decayed kind of flavor. Think of the flavor of a good quality brown mushroom and intensify it by about a factor of 100. If your product didn’t taste anything like this, I’m betting it was the questionable non-French truffle.
Lots of deception in the world of truffles, it seems. Be aware that many dishes sold in restaurants are flavored with ‘truffle oil’, which has never come in contact with actual truffles. Some self-deluding (or full of crap) chefs may claim they have ‘real truffle oil’, but it appears as though there is no such thing. The NY Times ha an article about it as well.
If you’re prepared to take out a second mortgage, fresh truffles are an amazing experience. They have an incredibly intense flavor which is really hard to describe. If you ever get a chance to sample them, you won’t have a neutral opinion. You might love it, you might hate it, but you certainly won’t go meh.
How (if at all) do truffles compare to morels? I’ve tasted morels, and decided that they had all the same flavors that I dislike in ordinary mushrooms, but greatly magnified. If truffles are more of the same, then I’ll definitely never buy them.
Well, actually, I wouldn’t buy them anyway. The only reason I’ve ever tried morels is that an aunt has them growing on her property, and it was a fun day going out to find them (there’s nothing else that remotely resembles a morel in that area, so there was no danger of poisoning).
The flavour sale is pretty logarithmic ('shrooms < morels < truffles). If you don’t like morels, stay the hell away from the good stuff. Truffles take no prisoners, Mandy.
I like morels and can’t stand truffles. Yes, I’ve had the real ones, both black and white, on several occasions. The first time I tried them was pasta with slivers of truffle. I didn’t realise what they were and after taking the first bite felt myself gagging. I managed to finish the dish with the help of some wine, as I have the other times, so as to not offend the hosts. While I love mushrooms, the truffle flavour is intense in a very primitive way that just does not sit well with me.
“the fungus, not the candy”? Why can’t some mycologist make fungus truffles that feed on candy?
I’ve seen people go into “orgasm face” when eating fried morels. Does that make them immorel?
An expert mycologist in an NPR piece said he was leery of eating mushrooms gathered by people who weren’t top-notch fungus identifiers. He also said some raw mushrooms contain carcinogenic stuff, so he doesn’t advice eating raw mush-a-roons. That was alarming, for I have eaten many, many raw mushrooms.:smack:
I don’t think truffles taste (or smell) anything like regular or exotic mushrooms.
Fine dining establishments I have worked at would often use both real truffles and the oil, but generally not together in the same dish.
We had a seared sea scallop dish that was garnished with frissee that was liberally tossed in a truffle vinaigrette, using the truffle oil in the dressing. It was very aromatic and delicious, and we had to use it because otherwise the price of the appetizer would have ballooned from $10 a portion to $30.
OTOH, we offered fresh shaved truffle tableside for certain dishes appointed as worthy for such by the chef. It was an additional upcharge of $20 for a few shavings off the grater, but boy does a little go a long way with those gnarled bastards.
OP, I would actively seek out a genuine truffle experience just for a once in a lifetime type of deal. It’s glorious. It’s an aroma and flavor you can’t quite pin down, but it’s quite primal and unforgettable.
Do some googling and you’ll find some interesting hypotheses regarding truffles, pheromones, the allure of their scent, etc. They certainly trigger something euphoric in my brain.
Black truffles grow in central Oregon forests. They are, apparently, very similar, in both taste and price, to the french variety.
I have a friend who owns property on which truffles have been found. She gets a few calls a year asking for permission to hunt them. I guess they use dogs, rather than pigs to find them.
You should hook up with the Stuart McLean story “No Tax on Truffles.” It’s on the album “Odd Jobs”, but you may find other sources to listen to it as a ‘torrent’, whatever that is…
I have tried the Oregon versions of truffles and while they aren’t bad like the Chinese versions, they aren’t the same as the ones from France and Italy.
I will hijack and say that I had some terrific wasabi root (you all knew that green reconstituted powder comes from an actual root, right?) from Oregon not too long ago.
My understanding is that the green goop you get is not actually wasabi at all, but flavored horseradish. Maybe with a small amount of powdered wasabi, but too little to make a difference, and not like the powdering process does it any favors.
Real, fresh wasabi is grated and is light green to white. And taste almost nothing like the green stuff.
the horrible shit they add to natural gas to allow people to smell gas leaks.
Seriously. When I was living in Italy, I went to a market and bought a bag of Arborio rice that had been stored with a white truffle to flavor it. Forgot to put it away when I got home, left my backpack in the living room.
My roommates came out into the living room a little later. “Hey, do you smell gas?”
“I do! Should we call the police or something? Where is it coming from?”
We started looking around the apartment in a panic and quickly traced the smell to my plastic bag of rice.
I cooked the rice later, but couldn’t bring myself to eat it because of the horrible methane funk. One of my roommates ate it in the end and said it was delicious. I’ve had some dishes with trace amounts of black truffle that I enjoyed, and an amazing dish with shavings of black truffle at my cousin’s wedding, but overall am not a big fan.