Thinking about Truffle Oil: Should you Buy it?
Tuesday January 9, 2007
The answer is, probably not.
Why? Because truffles are astronomically expensive -- in Italy white truffles currently range from 450 to 850 Euros/kilo (585 to 1170 dollars) depending upon size, and black truffles about 500 Euros/kilo, while Bis-(Methylthio)methane, the primary compound responsible for a truffle's distinctive aroma, can be easily synthesized by a chemical plant at a fraction of this cost.
Given this state of affairs, food producers will be tremendously tempted to mix Bis-(Methylthio)methane with a little olive oil and label it as truffle oil, especially if they filter the oil before they sell it. And they do; if you read the ingredient list of just about all truffle oils you will find that they contain artificial aromas -- indeed, the real question will be, in some cases, if there's any truffle at all in the bottle.
And in fact there may not be, for another reason:
As an article (in Italian) published by Slowfood points out, it is difficult to aromatize an oil with truffles, to the point that the Regione Marche has forbidden the sale of truffle oils at truffle fairs because they assume that any aromatized oil set out for sale will contain Bis-(Methylthio)methane rather than truffles.
For that matter, the article also warns against buying inexpensive white truffles, because unscrupulous vendors have been known to perk up weak truffles with Bis-(Methylthio)methane. Given the tremendous demand for truffles, the vendors figure they're certain to find a pollo da spennare -- a chicken to pluck -- if they do, and they likely will.
So, Bottom Line: If you come across truffle oil, even in the 10-20 dollars for a small bottle range, be extremely wary of it. And don't go looking for bargain truffles, because you won't be the one making the bargain.
Read all this, have some truffles, and want to aromatize some oil?
A guy at Chowhound finely sliced a half-ounce truffle into a fair volume of olive oil (about a gallon, or 4 liters, I think), heated the oil to 210 F (95 C) for 5 minutes, let it stand for 10, poured it into glass bottles, and chilled it. He says it is much better than what's available commercially (real truffles contain other aromatics in addition to Bis-(Methylthio)methane), but is also very expensive, given that truffles sell for 1600 dollars per pound where he is in the US.
Why? Because truffles are astronomically expensive -- in Italy white truffles currently range from 450 to 850 Euros/kilo (585 to 1170 dollars) depending upon size, and black truffles about 500 Euros/kilo, while Bis-(Methylthio)methane, the primary compound responsible for a truffle's distinctive aroma, can be easily synthesized by a chemical plant at a fraction of this cost.
Given this state of affairs, food producers will be tremendously tempted to mix Bis-(Methylthio)methane with a little olive oil and label it as truffle oil, especially if they filter the oil before they sell it. And they do; if you read the ingredient list of just about all truffle oils you will find that they contain artificial aromas -- indeed, the real question will be, in some cases, if there's any truffle at all in the bottle.
And in fact there may not be, for another reason:
As an article (in Italian) published by Slowfood points out, it is difficult to aromatize an oil with truffles, to the point that the Regione Marche has forbidden the sale of truffle oils at truffle fairs because they assume that any aromatized oil set out for sale will contain Bis-(Methylthio)methane rather than truffles.
For that matter, the article also warns against buying inexpensive white truffles, because unscrupulous vendors have been known to perk up weak truffles with Bis-(Methylthio)methane. Given the tremendous demand for truffles, the vendors figure they're certain to find a pollo da spennare -- a chicken to pluck -- if they do, and they likely will.
So, Bottom Line: If you come across truffle oil, even in the 10-20 dollars for a small bottle range, be extremely wary of it. And don't go looking for bargain truffles, because you won't be the one making the bargain.
Read all this, have some truffles, and want to aromatize some oil?
A guy at Chowhound finely sliced a half-ounce truffle into a fair volume of olive oil (about a gallon, or 4 liters, I think), heated the oil to 210 F (95 C) for 5 minutes, let it stand for 10, poured it into glass bottles, and chilled it. He says it is much better than what's available commercially (real truffles contain other aromatics in addition to Bis-(Methylthio)methane), but is also very expensive, given that truffles sell for 1600 dollars per pound where he is in the US.
Comments
I always had my suspicions about truffle oil and, frankly, always thought it tasted more of old-fashioned coal gas than white truffles. Now I know the magic ingredient always listed on the bottles as “aromi”. But how to stop the crazy fashion for the stuff by even leading chefs in the UK.
It’s difficult, because truffles are stylish, and people uninformed consumers will ask for the oil when they realize they cannot afford the truffles. The only way to fight the practice is to get the word out on it, but there are a great many vested interests that would resist.
Kyle
Aproposito of getting the word out on the truffle oil scam, see this UK Guardian piece and my comment below (peter1952) with link to your truffle oil piece…
Whoops - forgot link: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2007/11/the_trouble_with_truffles.html
Thanks so much for the referral! Truffle oil is one of the saddest things the chemical industry has come up with, because those who get used to it will never be able to appreciate a real truffle — it won’t have the same kick, and they won’t pick up on the subtleties real truffles have.
Kyle
I’m Italian, i live in the Marche region and my area is very rich (when the season is good which means no drought during the summer) of white truffles. I go to catch them in every fall with my 4 german hounds. You are right: most of times truffle’s oil is made with chemical things but not all that kind of oil is the same. You can find the genuine truffle’s oil not in a large industry but better to the truffle’s hunters. I make truffle oil every year for me and for friends…the only problem with the natural truffle’s oil is that you have to use it pretty soon ’cause once you have opened the bottle the natural smell of truffles goes easily away.