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PollDo you like Truffle?
92 votes
I love the flavor of truffle, but both my parents find it to be too strong. My father especially scrunches his face at the aroma.
EDIT: Truffles are a particular mushroom that grow underground beneath trees. They can only be hunted, not farmed, as the exact requirements they need to form are too hard to replicate by human means. They are a culinary delicacy, and are one of the world’s most expensive ingredients per pound. With that being said, a little bit goes a long way, as they have a distinct potent aroma and earthy umami taste.
I don't like mushrooms in general, but I feel like I might like truffle. Haven't tried yet them though, because where I live truffles are not sold in around-the-corner supermarket. I could try truffle oil - but it's way too expensive for a bottle of oil.
Truffle olive oil is definitely worth it in my opinion, it’s not derived from artificial stuff. Especially if you find a bottle that certifies it is straight from Italy. It’s easier to find truffle sea salt in my area and flavored things with that instead of anything else. It’s still expensive sadly, but I got this HUGE bag of kettle corn truffle sea salt potato chips at BJs for such a good price that I’m over the moon with it. I love it. It’s not weak like other truffle sea salt stuff I’ve had in the past, but it might be too strong for others. It’s definitely a taste you either love enthusiastically or you can’t stand.
I don't like spending lots of money on food) So if one of my friends buys truffle oil or something truffle-flavoured, I will be happy to try. But I am still not convinced to buy it out of my own pocket. Even if it's incredibly good and even if I can travel to the future to know for sure that I will like it, I still don't want to splurge on it. As someone else here mentioned - it's a luxury item and I'd rather find joy in something that is free or at least affordable.
A spice called asafoetida has a very similar umami flavour but without the price tag. I suspect a lot of the cheaper supermarket items like truffle flavoured oils actually contain mostly asafoetida.
Ive never heard of that spice before, so I’m intrigued! I’ll have to look up what it looks like
When I saw the question I thought, "the mushroom or the chocolate?", but then I thought, I like both, so it doesn't matter!
One of the most bougie things I've ever said was "you know, I find both black truffles and caviar to be really overrated in taste." Like damn, self, you a Rockefeller?
They can only be hunted, not farmed
I'm just picturing someone laying in the grass like they're in combat, watching special mushrooms through the scope of a fancy wildlife net. After a swift pull of the trigger, she did it! She bagged a truffle!
Then when she proudly shows it off to her wife, they have a long talk about whether they should mount the truffle onto the wall of the den, or if they should eat it.
Hahahaha not that kind of hunting 😂
Regarding your edit, truffle farming is quite a large and expanding industry. There are quite a few truffle orchards operating all over the world and dozens in my neck of the woods. I actually went truffle hunting at one such place last winter.
Im learning new stuff every day! Thank you ☺️
I’d love to experience truffle hunting one day myself. But I guess is it really a farm if you just purchased woodland as your property that already had truffle growing there? 🤔
It's a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. Still exciting though. Not sure about wild truffles. I have never tried looking for them as I've never lived somewhere they grow wild.
Truffles are farmed where I am. The tree roots are inoculated with the fungus and the trees are then grown in rows. Dogs are used to sniff the truffles out for harvesting. I used to work where the truffles were freeze-dried, powdered, and otherwise preserved. We used to make truffle salt that was just sea-salt with 4 drops of "truffle aroma" added to it. I don't find the aroma appealing at all, but I know a fancy restaurant in the city that used to purchase truffle aroma from us to use as a perfume to make people think they use expensive ingredients in their cooking.
I have never heard of someone managing to farm it before! This must be a very big kind of secret. I knew about the dogs and the harvest, but never thought they could farm it
There are 4 truffle farms within a 3 mile radius of me. This one was recently sold and the new owners offer tours. https://www.thetrufflefarmtasmania.com.au/
I went to one of those tours. But I guess it was before they sold since the guide said her father started it.
Ahhh it’s in Australia! That’s why I’ve never heard of it. To my knowledge, it’s not possible either by legal standards or otherwise to farm truffles in Italy
That's probably because farming them in Europe would use one strain of fungus over the naturally occurring local funguses in each area. Australia has no naturally occurring truffle fungus as we don't naturally have the tree varieties the truffles grow on the roots of.
That makes a lot more sense when you put it that way!
I think someone once told me about a truffle farm in Switzerland?
It is very complex, they only figured out how to inoculate tree roots with truffle spores rather recently.
(Sadly, chanterelles appear to not be valuable enough to try that with them, I'd like to purchase my very own chanterelle tree!)
It's not that I find it too strong, it's that I don't think it's a good flavour to just be adding to whatever because it was successfully marketed as a Luxury Food Additive™. It rarely does any tricks more interesting than a properly applied quality soy sauce. The way its used is so unimaginative, like a culinary cybertruck. Maybe it's because I don't know what meat tastes like and it works with those unseasoned, meat-heavy French dishes or something, I don't know, maybe I just despise the gimmick of "luxury" anything.
Also white truffle was always pretty tolerable, but I never see it anymore?
I like it but don’t love it, though I love mushrooms.
Although much of the “truffle” flavouring in cheaper dishes is not the real deal.
I do enjoy the umami flavour for sure, even the truffle essence oil( never gonna be real truffle lol). It tastes fantastic in a cream pasta.
And if you're feeling up for it, truffle parmesan popcorn. Just pop your popcorn in a pot with oil, drizzle truffle oil, grate some parmesan, season with salt and pepper to taste and toss together. Finish it off with some more parmesan grated on top. So good.
I’ve had a brand of truffle sea salt popcorn before, and while it was good, it was too light on the truffle flavor for me. These chips I found though are the perfect amount of flavor.
I’ve seen many truffle olive oils that are so potently aromatic, I just adore it. It does indeed taste good over pasta of any kind, but with gnocchi is probably my favorite 😋
I said, “Yes, I love it,” but I think I’ve only ever had truffle fries? Which were pretty good, but if there was a, “Yeah, it’s all right,” I would’ve picked that LOL bc I don’t remember it being incredible or anything, but it was pretty good 🤷🏻♀️
I love truffle fries! I was just snacking on truffle sea salt chips
I just don't like mushrooms in general, so I've never tried it.
It really doesn’t taste like you’d think a mushroom would taste. It has a very smokey flavor
I like actual truffles and some truffle flavored stuff but the truffle oil to me tastes terrible.
I’ve only ever seen truffle infused olive oil, not pure truffle oil. Have you seen stuff that’s pure truffle oil? 😲
No I meant the truffle infused or truffle flavored oil.
Interesting, I’ve never had a problem with truffle infused olive oil. But then again, it wasn’t a cheaply made imitation. This stuff was straight from Italy and they have very strict laws about these kinds of things
I like it if it's used sparingly, but people tend to go wild with the stuff.
Yeah it can be overpowering if not used correctly!
Does the truffle oil they put on fries count?
Yes absolutely! And I love a good truffle fry