10 Things You Need To Know About Truffles

I spent the MLK holiday weekend in Napa Valley at the 2nd annual Napa Truffle Festival (I know, tough job right?).  This event is put on by the American Truffle Company, a business launched by Robert Chang, who fell in love with truffles at first bite.  While truffles grow primarily in France and Italy, Robert is determined to help farmers produce American truffles so that he, chefs and other truffle fans can get them fresher faster.

My main mission was to discover the best type of wine to pair with truffles, but with the 60 Minutes report on truffles airing just before the festival, it seems there's a heightened interest to know more about truffles.  There are some facts and some myths to debunk regarding these ugly, knobby but intoxicating balls.

Will American truffles take root? We'll have to wait about five years to find out.

 

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Comments

[astroup123]

02:58 PM on 01/24/2012

What about truffle butter. There are tiny black bits in it. Are they also fake?

[by-the-sea-]

08:12 PM on 01/24/2012

Yes.

[RobSnowhite]

07:34 AM on 01/24/2012

Truffles ARE NOT mushrooms. Mushrooms are from the division Basidiomycota, the club fungi. Truffles are of the division Ascomycota, the cup fungi.

[NikolaiStavrogin]

01:56 AM on 01/24/2012

Concerning the sniggering comment about truffle vodka, it is actually quite good. I myself have made chantrelle vodka from wild picked chantrelles here in Oregon, and I can say unequivocally that wild mushrooms pair well with spirits.

[Rafael Perez]

01:54 AM on 01/24/2012

Forgive me for missing out on this, but I've never had truffles in my life before. Maybe I have and I have not noticed yet? Perhaps.

So... can anyone explain their taste and texture?

[astroup123]

02:57 PM on 01/24/2012

Dirty mushrooms.

[thebigbike]

01:29 AM on 01/24/2012

This I know about truffles. the good stuff is so far beyond anything I'd want to spend on food, that I'll never experience them. But I'll live.

[Crewzzer]

10:53 PM on 01/23/2012

UGH! Ptui! Fungus!

[NikitaAhn]

03:18 AM on 01/24/2012

Do you have the same reaction to penicillin? :)

[Reishi]

05:08 PM on 01/23/2012

The author should have researched her story more carefully. She implies that truffles aren't grown commercially in the US. Au contraire, as a google would show. There are farms in N. Carolina that have been producing truffles for several years, equal to the best from Europe. That's where Emeril gets his from.

[2008FedUP]

04:49 PM on 01/23/2012

We have found the best wine with truffles has been Cantine Pellegrino Marsala Vergine Riserva. Paired with black truffles and scallops :)

[tizzylish]

03:22 PM on 01/23/2012

I never knew about truffles until I moved to France. I spoke to our friend who has a truffle farm in the south of France who said he has seen a 80% decrease in truffles the past 30 years. The climate change has something to do with this. Maybe in 20 years, there will no longer be truffles on pasta...

[Karl Wilder]

02:18 PM on 01/23/2012

I adore truffles and some of the oils (seriously expensive) are made with truffle rather than chemical essence. I have been putting truffle salt on popcorn and am in bliss.

[MaryinNM]

12:54 AM on 01/24/2012

I had popcorn with truffle oil and sea salt for the first time at the Kimpton Hotel Palomar in Philadelphia. My gawd! It was the most heavenly, delicious popcorn I've ever had! The flavor is sublime and heady. Just extraordinary! Love me some truffle oil!

[TruthBSaid]

02:10 PM on 01/23/2012

I didn't even know I "needed" to know one thing about truffles, much less ten. I feel a lot more
self-confident now.

[Seth Gordon]

01:35 PM on 01/23/2012

"Is using synthetic truffle flavors a culinary crime? If you can't get the real thing, and like the truffle flavor, why not use the oils or salts?"

It's not a crime, as long as you realize that the flavor of most truffle oils, salts, and butters isn't remotely anything like the taste of actual truffles. There are a couple brands that stand out (the butters from D'Artagnan, for example) - but more the most part, most of these truffle products don't have a molecule of truffle in them.

Truffle flavor molecules, it should be noted, are soluble in water and alcohol, but not fat. Thus, even putting a truffle into a bottle of oil (and it'll always be a cheaper summer truffle) won't actually infuse the oil with anything. You'll note, most trufflesque products also list "aroma" or "flavor" as ingredients - code for the synthetic stuff, which just tastes like chemicals to me.

[charleyvldm9]

09:45 AM on 01/23/2012

I've seen all 11 ways, but it still is'nt going into my mouth.

[Bubbawubba Gump2]

09:32 AM on 01/23/2012

The Chinese are growing truffles and shipping them to Europe. The quality is low and they don't have the same flavor, but they are are hard to tell apart. The price is very cheap and fraud is rampant. They mix them in with the real ones so you never know what you are getting.