Truffle oil has changed my life!

DaveH

DaveH

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
12,249
Ok maybe not quite all that.

Anyway after having several truffle enhance entrees over the last year or so, I finally got off my arse and picked up a bottle of truffle oil.

Truffle is a fungus that grows undergroud, usually in france, where they train dogs and pigs to find them. Truffle oil is olive oil infused with truffles. There are white and black truffles and oil.

I got a small (couple of ounce) bottle of white truffle oil fro around $14. I use a little bit in hamburgers, steak tips, and egg sandwiches with great success (eg: wife likes it too) The taste is kinda mushroom/garlic/earthy if that helps

It didn't work that well for chicken or pork.

Kinda fun to try, reccomended if you're a cook.
 
Yes, they use supermodels in France, but they don't waste them hunting for truffles. :)
 
Of course not. I prefer to use them to serve me the truffle oil!
Um, is this content moving toward the Pirate's Cove? :D

I'm hungry now...

Esav Benyamin said:
Yes, they use supermodels in France, but they don't
waste them hunting for truffles. :)
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I had some potato chips with truffle oil.

Don't laugh, it was at one of the better restraunts in Savanna, GA. They cut the potatoes really thin and cook each batch to order. The come out crispy and warm with the truffle oil soaking in and dusted with sea salt.

After having that, I went out the next week and bought a little bottle for myself. I prefer the black truffles to the white, but they are both insanely good.
 
Truffle oil is great on pasta with portobello mushrooms. Also good in scrambled egg. The best deal I got was a jar of black truffle salsa in the UK for about 5 pounds. I served it on our Christmas day first course pate at my Inn. I kept the empty jar for about 6 months and you could still smell it. At catering college, I was shown a half truffle, allowed to smell it, taste a pin head piece and what was left was returned to stores!

Don't leave your oil in a kitchen cupboard for too long or the olive oil will go rancid. Keep it in the fridge for no longer than 6 months.

I love foie gras too. when we travel from UK to Canada before my birthday we always buy a jar from Caviar house at the airport. On my 50th we had caviar too.
 
djolney said:
A little bit of truffle oil on grilled kangaroo: yum.
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Friends of mine just moved to Oz (Secret Harbour). I'll have to ask them if this is what they're planning to serve for Christmas dinner. Tastes like chicken, right? ;)
 
There are three chemicals in truffles that are responsible for the flavour and aroma. One of them is very similar to a sex pheramone for pigs ,that's why pigs are good to find truffles !! If you can detect the three chemicals you think truffles are great . If you can't, you wonder what the fuss is all about !
 
I went to a Fungus Fair in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco several years ago. They were selling small slices of crusty french bread with black truffle butter for a couple of bucks. Yum!
 
Fred, I might consider spending $50, what's a good source?

Edit: definitely let me knw, I just had a thin sliced roast beef sandwhich with some steamin truffle oil laced au jus and it was heavenly, OK beyond heavenly.
 
shame on me, i am french i never try it !:eek:

Truffles are exxxxxtremely expensive (real black ones), even in France.
I heard that you could do truffle omelet without putting a pinch of truffle on it...
Just put the eggs one day in same box than the truffles.
Aroma of the truffle is so strong that it would communicate to the eggs !:D

"Foie gras" is quite easy to do, i do it myself every Christmas... much tastier than every box you could buy around !
If you could buy fresh gose liver in USA, i give you the recipe.:)
 
I used to sell it in my gourmet store. I don't even remember the brand. I do remember the taste, however. It is very, very tasty. Why not just do a search engine search and look for expensive brands from Italy. I doubt you can go wrong. Incidentally, you'll find the black truffle oils to be more flavorful. Take care.
 
One thing you can say about truffles, is that there is nothing on earth close to them. I think every person processes the truffle aroma and taste differently. For example, I am completely repulsed by the aroma, and totally knocked on my butt by the taste. My preferred method for injesting them? An omlette with fine truffle bits.

Zingerman's Fine Foods in Ann Arbor has kind of a truffle "group buy" I think you can get in on. They collect everyone's deposits, and come truffle season, have a representative in South France procure the supply, have it exported to Michigan, and then distribute them to the participants through their shipping system. It's a good way to get more for your many $$$$, and they always get the best. www.zingermans.com.
 
Just few words: I was born near Norcia, Italy, very famous for black truffles. Truffle oil very often is not really made with truffles: there are chemical products that are very near to the smell and taste of truffles. I know people who search truffles, and they use them raw, very seldom put them into oil.

Very often truffles you find in oil are from China and/or Africa: very poor scent and taste, that is corrected by chemical.

It is very hard to preserve truffles: they contain some water, so they decay very soon and olive oil itself cannot preserve them, because oil and the water contained don't mix.

For your information, this summer I bought half a kilo of fresh black truffles (summer truffles are not the best) for 37 euros (say, a little more than a pound of weight for a little more of 40 USD) from a man I know who search them.

For those among us who read Italian:

http://www.umbriaonline.com/mostra_mercato_tartufo_nero_norcia.phtml

Falcenberg
 
Yeah...I'm in, too. Actually, this would make an interesting and unexpected Christmas gift for my wife. (It'll scare her when I tell her I got an idea for a Christmas gift from bladeforums. :)

So--where's a good internet site to get it. And should I get the black or the white?
 
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