CarolCooks2…Friday Food Review…Truffles…

Welcome to Friday Food Reviews where I will be covering a different food or product each week and looking at… what are they?  where do they grow, what can we substitute them for in a recipe, are they safe to eat, how to store them, how to use them, cook them, anything connected to that food. or product..all the why’s and the wherefores…it will, of course, be mainly my own opinion or a known fact…good or bad…there may even be a tried and tested recipe…or three…

This week it’s…Truffles.

We all love truffles in our house and no… not the chocolate kind…lol…the type of mushroom kind…definition of which is “any spore-bearing fruiting body” this is generally true as even though truffles grow beneath the ground and don’t have a prominent stem or spore-bearing surface as most other mushrooms do.

I hear you saying… well how do they grow then?… The spores go back into the soil via animal faeces…because of the scarcity of truffles and the fact they are seasonal, extremely difficult to grow plus they take years to cultivate, need a specific climate where there are lots of oak or elm trees which is what they are often found in woodlands…where they grow primarily near the roots of oak and elm trees.

Coupled will the fact that from the moment they are dug up they begin to lose their aroma makes them extremely expensive.

$300-$800 per pound with the rarer white truffles costing some $4000 per pound in weight and they have a shorter life than black truffles and only last around 5 days from harvesting.

I was going to advise truffle oil as a substitute...some chefs call it fake with a synthetic taste. The truffle oil used in many restaurants does not get its flavour from truffles. It is a mix of olive oil and chemical compounds…Most commercial truffle oils are concocted by mixing olive oil with one or more compounds like 2,4-dithiapentane…that sounds like I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole…or would I …many chefs do and this article goes some way to explaining why…

How are truffles harvested…

They are either dug up by experienced truffle hunters, pigs or dogs…Pigs however have traditionally been used to find truffles for centuries because they have an excellent sense of smell and are drawn to the truffle because the truffle contains androstenol which is a sex hormone found in the saliva of male pigs…I am always in awe of how certain food is reliant on differing climates and trees to reproduce their fruits mother nature is certainly awesome.

Specially trained Lagotto Romagnolo dogs are also used to seek out the truffle…

Because of the worth and expertise in finding truffles of these animals, it also means kidnapping is rife…This was also depicted in the film “Pig” which starred Nicholas Cave a film I have yet to watch.

That’s all for the truffle I will leave it up to you whether you buy or do not truffle oil or maybe you forage for truffles yourself or are able to buy the real thing…

I’ll leave you with this tongue in cheek video which may make your mind up for you …

Thank you for joining me today…for the expo on the expensive truffle and the truffle which doesn’t a truffle or even even a whiff of one…

28 thoughts on “CarolCooks2…Friday Food Review…Truffles…”

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I’ve yet to find them here or Tik has when she’s foraging for mushrooms the cost to buy is stupid money so like you content with shavings in a restaurant xx

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  2. Pingback: CarolCooks2 weekly roundup… 13th February-19th February 2022-Monday Musings, Health, A-Z World Cuisine, Austria, Truffles and Saturday Snippets. | Retired? No one told me!

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  7. petespringerauthor

    I’ve never tried truffles, but I know there are many scammers and understand how they manipulate their wording into deceiving people. I’d say an apt punishment in addition to substantial fines would be to lock them in a room for five minutes of Judge Judy reaming them out. 😎

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  10. beetleypete

    I have had (pasta) restaurant dishes in London with ‘Truffle shavings’. But I would never pay the price to include them in anything I cook. And I already knew that Truffle Oil was ‘suspect’, so have never used that either.
    Best wishes, Pete. x

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      My experience has been on a restaurant dish to expensive to buy.. I keep hoping my daughter in law will find me truffle she does a lot of foraging for mushrooms and greens… Maybe one day she will strike lucky for me 🤗

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  13. Pingback: CarolCooks2…Friday Food Review…Truffles… – MobsterTiger

  14. Clive

    Interesting piece, Carol. I’ve never really taken much to truffles, and certainly couldn’t afford to include them if I ever did any cooking! Just to let you know, your first video was unavailable here, for some reason, but the other worked fine 😊 x

    Liked by 1 person

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