Truffle Products
Truffle products put truffle flavor, from real truffle or added flavoring, into oils, salts, sauces, butters and chips; truffles are the underground fruit of fungi that grow on tree roots. Fresh truffles are costly and stay fragrant for only about a week.
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Ritrovo Selections - Casina Rossa - Sugo Al Tartufo - 17.6 oz.
Regular price $12.00 USDRegular price -
Regalis - White Truffle Infused Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 100 mL
Regular price $19.99 USDRegular price -
Regalis - Black Truffle Infused Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 100 mL
Regular price $19.99 USDRegular price -
Ritrovo Selections - I Peccati Di Ciacco - White Beans W/ Truffle - 280 g
Regular price $16.50 USDRegular price -
Morelli - Pappardelline w/ Truffle - Egg Pasta - 250 g
Regular price $9.00 USDRegular price$12.00 USDSale price $9.00 USDSale -
Jacobsen Salt Co. - White Truffle Salt - Infused Sea Salt
Regular price $33.00 USDRegular price$40.00 USDSale price $33.00 USDSale
How to choose Truffle Products
- Black or white. The black Périgord truffle, Tuber melanosporum, is usually cooked. The white Alba truffle, Tuber magnatum, is shaved raw over finished food.
- Add it last. Truffle aroma breaks down with drying and with heat, so stir truffle oil, salt or butter in at the end, or warm it gently in butter or cream.
- Fresh season. In Alba, the white truffle harvest season opens on October 1 and runs into the winter. Black truffles from Périgord and Provence follow, roughly December to February.
About Truffle Products
Truffle products start with truffles, the spore-bearing fruit of underground fungi, the most prized of them in the genus Tuber. These fungi live in partnership with tree roots such as oak, poplar, willow and hazel. Only ripe truffles give off their scent, which is how trained dogs find them.
In Italy, truffle hunters called tartufai work with a dog and a narrow spade that leaves the soil undisturbed, a practice now on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. About 90 percent of France's black truffles now come from orchards of inoculated trees, while the white truffle has fruited in only a few planted orchards and is still almost all gathered wild.
Store a fresh truffle in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper inside a closed glass jar, and use it within a week. Oils, salts and sauces keep far longer, which is how most kitchens cook with truffle outside the short fresh season.
At a glance
- Made from
- Truffles, or truffle flavoring, in oil, salt or sauce
- Main types
- Black Périgord, white Alba and lesser kinds such as bianchetto
- Label terms
- Tuber melanosporum, Tuber magnatum, artificially flavored
- Serve with
- Pasta, risotto and other finished dishes
Truffle Products questions
Why is white truffle never cooked?
Its value is all aroma, with notes of garlic, mushroom and honey, and heat destroys the compounds behind it. The Alba fair advises eating white truffle fresh, sliced thin with a sharp truffle slicer over a finished dish. The black kind is usually cooked, ideally gently and with butter or cream, which helps hold the aroma.
Is truffle oil made from real truffles?
Some is and some is not, and the label tells you which. Under US rules, a product whose truffle taste comes from added flavoring rather than truffle must say artificial or artificially flavored next to its name. The flavoring also has to appear in the ingredient list, so read both before you buy.
Why are white truffles so expensive?
Supply is tiny and wild. The yearly harvest of white truffles is only a few tens of tonnes, nearly all gathered by hunters and dogs in forests, because the species rarely fruits in planted orchards. Planted orchards in Italy took 15 to 20 years to produce, and only a handful ever did.
Sources: Oregon State University Extension; INRAE; UNESCO; the Alba white truffle fair.
