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Preserved Truffles


rascal

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Just noticed these at my favorite market. Are they worth it ($14 for a little jar)? What should I do with them. I've never had truffles before (truffle oil, yes) and am pretty clueless. My good friend The Internet seems to be telling me to prepare them simply and don't heat them for long.

Any suggestions? I was thinking over some fresh homemade pasta with butter and Parm.

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I agree.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Okay, is there somewhere reputable that I can order fresh truffles from then?  Not a snowball's chance in a very hot place that I can source fresh ones around here.  What is a reasonable price to pay?

Try here http://www.sainte-alvere.com/uk_accueil.asp :biggrin::biggrin:

Bruce Frigard

Quality control Taster, Château D'Eau Winery

"Free time is the engine of ingenuity, creativity and innovation"

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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Okay, is there somewhere reputable that I can order fresh truffles from then?  Not a snowball's chance in a very hot place that I can source fresh ones around here.  What is a reasonable price to pay?

Try here http://www.sainte-alvere.com/uk_accueil.asp :biggrin::biggrin:

And take out a second mortgage on your house while you're ordering....

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Okay, is there somewhere reputable that I can order fresh truffles from then?  Not a snowball's chance in a very hot place that I can source fresh ones around here.  What is a reasonable price to pay?

Try here http://www.sainte-alvere.com/uk_accueil.asp :biggrin::biggrin:

And take out a second mortgage on your house while you're ordering....

Market price share with your friends. Payment seems to be the biggest problem. I'll let you know when I get it figured out. :sad: Any international bankers out there? :biggrin:

Edited by winesonoma (log)

Bruce Frigard

Quality control Taster, Château D'Eau Winery

"Free time is the engine of ingenuity, creativity and innovation"

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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i might get totally slammed for this, but whenever i'm in italy i buy preserved truffles in olive oil (which tends to be cheap there) since i really can't afford the real thing here in the states and yes, although they do pale in comparison to the real thing, i still enjoy using my little jars of truffles in scrambled eggs (or egg sandwiches!), on grilled cheese, and on pasta. although this may not be everyone's bag but it works for me!

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Just noticed these at my favorite market.  Are they worth it ($14 for a little jar)?  What should I do with them.  I've never had truffles before (truffle oil, yes) and am pretty clueless.  My good friend The Internet seems to be telling me to prepare them simply and don't heat them for long.

Any suggestions?  I was thinking over some fresh homemade pasta with butter and Parm.

Let respond with my fresh opinion, which is not to say I disagree with anything posted so far, except to say I don't believe truffles preserved in a jar are absolutely worthless, although they may not give a convincing picture of what you've been missing and they're probably not well suited to your intended use. I'd also question whether you'll get enough truffle, preserved or fresh, for $14 to shave over pasta.

The first issue is quality. I have had fresh truffles that had no taste -- well perhaps the taste of dirty potato or stale bread. It's important to know the provenance, or origin of the raw truffle. When it comes to a jarred truffle, I'd buy only from a very reputable company. Bear in mind that I don't have a hell of a lot of experience eating truffles and even less cooking with them, they are very expensive and even more so this year it seems, but I have enjoyed them from time to time, mostly at the hands of those who know better how to buy and handle them. My one fiasco was ordering an inexpensive truffle menu without reading the find print on the menu. Truffles from the Himalayas or any part of China are known to have little if any flavor.

Pungent fresh truffles, both black and white, are a joy. Truffles from jars are perhaps best used in flavoring a sauce. Black truffles in a jar, whether from the Perigord or Provence, are good for making a wonderful sauce perigourdine. Babette, in Babette's Feast made a quail (stuffed with foie gras) in pastry shell with such a sauce. The first time I recall having such a sauce was in a small restaurant or bistro in Paris specializing in for of the Perigord region. I had stuffed goose neck (really just a rich sausage with goose liver using the goose neck skin as a casing) with truffles in the sauce. It was not expensive and not even a big splurge for a young man. Those were the days. If I recall correctly, sauce perigourdine is little more than diced or minced truffles in a reduced demi-glace with Madeira. Starting with a good rich home made stock will do more for the final sauce than the addition of the truffles.

I don't know what one might do with preserved white truffles. I don't know if I've even seen them. Fresh is what I'd want over pasta or where they're used as a prime ingredient of a dish.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

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