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There Are No Truffles in Truffle Oil (2014)
- AdmiralAsshat 10y agoCommercially available truffle oil sold in US markets tastes absolutely horrid. It has a pungent, chemical aroma, and its taste completely overpowers whatever you put it on. Do yourself a favor and just buy some high quality olive oil if you want a better finishing oil for your food. Oilve-oil and vinegar taprooms seem to have exploded in popularity in the US over the past few years.
- kls 10y agoAgreed, I went to culinary school years ago and we had access to both high quality black and white truffles, to say the least I fell in love on first bite, we used to fry slices up in butter and eat them like a potato chip while in class, that was heaven. My first introduction to truffle oil was years later and conversely flavor hell. I could never really put the flavor into words until I read this article, a gasoline like flavor is a perfect description. I knew when I tasted it that there was no way any essence of truffles where in it. Truffles make other flavors "pop" and have umami. Truffle oil kills the flavor of the underlining ingredients and replaces them with a chemical and gasoline taste.
- 4ad 10y agoNot only in the US. Everywhere is the same. Black truffles are not that expensive, and you don't need much. I encourage everyone to try them instead of this ridiculous thing. There is some slight similarity with the real thing, but the word here is slight. It's obscene, gasoline-like, and lacks the very essential complexity and subtleness that make truffles really unique.
- alexkavon 10y agoDuh
- gabemart 10y agoIf this is true, I am genuinely surprised that it is legal to sell "Truffle oil". Take the truffle oil offered by 3 big UK supermarkets [1][2][3]. All three stores describe it as having: > Ingredients: > Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Truffle Extract What else are we to interpret "truffle extract" as, other than an extract made from truffles? Sainsbury's describes it as "Truffle flavour" [3] which I guess I could see as not actually stating it contains truffles (aside from the previously mentioned ingredients list). But Tesco describes it as "Truffle Flavoured" [1], which seems to me to more strongly imply it actually contains some truffle, and Asda describes it as "Flavoured with White Truffle" [2] which to me sounds like an unambiguous statement that it contains at least some white truffle. If this article is accurate, it seems like a complete and utter con. [1] http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292974500 http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292974500 [2] https://groceries.asda.com/product/seed-nut-oil/la-espanola-extra-virgin-olive-oil-flavoured-with-white-truffle/910002512430 https://groceries.asda.com/product/seed-nut-oil/la-espanola-... [3] http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/la-espanola-truffle-flavour-olive-oil-250ml?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=PZcOd%2FzyK5UzG9u54ivMIX4MX2tRdTeU7MGFHHWCKsseTJyaQ63bOvh5V61FjA1RMzt4p5lrIWnHfuDhwZG51WeK9NxDJM7KdBhoYCj9RTbKVsTLeBSQojSDErlw%2FK2n&ddkey=http%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fla-espanola-truffle-flavour-olive-oil-250ml http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/gro...
- andrewla 10y agoI agree that this seems odd, and all I've ever seen as proof that "truffle oil does not contain truffles" is the bald assertion, without any other evidence. In the US, I can imagine (barely) that this might be permissible, but in Europe, with DOC and AOC laws, it seems almost impossible that something could be called "truffle oil" as opposed to "truffle-flavoured oil". "Truffle Extract" and "Flavoured with White Truffle" seem to be pretty unambiguously claiming that truffles were involved in the preparation.
- Alex3917 10y ago> all I've ever seen as proof that "truffle oil does not contain truffles" is the bald assertion, without any other evidence. It's not even possible to make commercial truffle oil with real truffles, because the flavor doesn't last longer than a day or two. You could theoretically make it in your house and then use it immediately, but there wouldn't really be any point.
- adlpz 10y agoI'm always amazed that this sort of blatant false advertisement is just allowed anywhere in the world. In other news: > Historically, there is at least some mention of Italians infusing olive oils with real truffles, and Urbani Truffles sells truffle oil that it says is made from real truffles I actually do that myself. Get a truffle, cut it in a couple of pieces and leave it soaking for a month or two in good olive oil. Not that hard, not even that expensive either if you live remotely close to where they grow. It's a bit funny how they try to make this look like if it was some arcane secret.
- bpicolo 10y agoDo be careful with making your own infused oils. Truffle/Garlic variants (and I'm sure others) definitely carry botulism risk.
- fdgdasfadsf 10y agoThe only careful way to make your own flavoured oils at home it to not make them.
- tptacek 10y agoIt's safe to make truffle or garlic oil at home. What's not safe is storing it for long periods of time. I make garlic oil at least once a week (by very slowly simmering cloves in olive oil for an hour or so, which also produces spreadable roasted garlic.)
- fdgdasfadsf 10y agoEaten that day or the next? Long periods of time include a week - and certainly a couple of months in the GPs case has a huge hazard and a non-zero risk. I hope you and she continue to have good luck.
- tptacek 10y agoThis is Russian Roulette with a gun with literally hundreds of millions of empty chambers, because virtually nobody ever gets botulism from garlic. Look up the stats, remembering the implicit denominator. Heat of any real kind quickly denatures botulism toxin. Significant heat --- above 120c --- detroys spores, which are not themselves toxic. The roasted garlic itself isn't brought uniformly to 120c, but the oil is, for well over the few minutes it takes to get a 10D reduction. Botulism spore germination is retarded (though not eliminated) in refrigeration. Paranoia about garlic oil doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering how many food systems we happily introduce not just cooked garlic into but also raw garlic. In many of those systems garlic is isolated in anaerobic environments and little if anything is done to retard its germination and doubling. But we happily eat Chinese food leftovers every day. Garlic is also not a uniquely dangerous food. It's just a low-acid vegetable that happens to grow underground. There are lots of low-acid vegetables that are also potential settings for botulism; we just don't preserve them in oil. But, like garlic, we use them in all sorts of food systems that could easily germinate botulism. And still: almost nobody gets food-borne botulism. To sum up: Yes, I agree, don't jam a bunch of raw garlic cloves into a bottle of olive oil and forget it in the back of your refrigerator. You'd almost definitely be fine if you did, but a small risk of great harm is something worth taking seriously. But don't act like combining garlic and oil is the culinary equivalent of combining pure sodium and water. It is not. If you want to be paranoid, put some lime juice in your garlic oil and make a mojo. Whatever.
- MaxGabriel 10y agoThe author's claim that truffle oil is just olive oil and and added scent doesn't match up with my experiences. Truffle oil tastes totally different from olive oil, and I don't like the flavor. The oil being artificially flavored is much less of a con than not being any different from olive oil.
- chefandy 10y agoThey didn't say it tasted no different from olive oil, they said it was olive oil, with artificial flavoring added. Which is true. Tang is artificially flavored water. That doesn't mean it's no different from water.
- corin_ 10y ago> "Despite the name, most truffle oil does not contain even trace amounts of truffle; it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes up part of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients. Essentially, truffle oil is olive oil plus truffles’ “disconcerting” smell." That implies that (most) truffle oil is only different to olive oil in smell, which is a big difference from oil that tastes of either real or artificial truffel flavouring.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoA large part of taste IS smell.
- chefandy 10y agoAside from differing levels in what you can directly sense with your tongue– Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour, and Glutamates (umami), which we would all consider to be 'seasoning' elements (not broaching the topic of different chemical effects, such as with capsaicin)– the primary difference between any two foods is how they smell, which is why when you have a totally blocking cold, you can easily tell if something is too salty, but you couldn't say what herbs were used in it. Consider a lime lollipop and a cherry lollipop with the same ratio of sugar base to whatever acid they were using for sourness. Going strictly by your sense of taste, maybe because of Anosmia, they would be utterly indistinguishable. The flavoring components, however, which really just give the pops a scent, are what makes the lime one taste like lime, and the cherry one taste like... whatever cherry lollipops are supposed to taste like. Our brain combines the tongue sensations and smells (and arguably, its appearance, mouthfeel and sound) to create our perception of something's 'flavor.' This is why seasoning food, especially with salt, is important. It's not going to change the intensity of the brownness of a steak, or the freshness of an ear of corn, but it stimulates the tongue in a way that makes our brain much more aware of what we're smelling. It turns up the volume on the existing flavors, as if to say "hey! pay attention to what you're smelling, because it's coming from what's in your mouth." (I imagine this evolved from a combination of our need to seek nutrition, as well as our need to detect poisons.) Lacking stimulation on your tongue, foods come across as flat and uninteresting. I'm sure our bathrooms would be designed very differently if our brains were worse at making the distinction between what we're just smelling, and what was in our mouths.
- merraksh 10y agoIt is just a coincidence, obviously, but the Italian for "scam" is "truffa". Truffle itself is "tartufo".
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y agoSee also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartuffe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartuffe
- trufflexpert 10y agoOk. They can grow truffles on a farm. In fact it was really big before the world war. However it killed the price and after the war everyone had a gentleman a agreement not to do it again.
- sanj 10y ago[citation needed]
- nkrisc 10y agoThis Wikipedia article talks about cultivation of truffles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle#Cultivation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle#Cultivation I can not attest to the veracity of the sources however. It also makes no mention of a "gentlemen's agreement" to artificially inflate the prices of truffles.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThere was an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen where a contestant used truffle oil on a dish. Jet Tela (judge): truffle oil, man, there's just no place for it in the kitchen. Alton Brown (host): yes there is. throws the bottle in the garbage. Harsh. (I do agree that using truffle oil is a sign of an amateur chef)
- dagurp 10y agoReminds of this over-the-top reaction on masterchef https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJEaSGzSOqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJEaSGzSOqE
- baby 10y agoThe funny part is that Gordon Ramsay's BURGR restaurant has truffle oil in the menu: https://gordonramsayrest-2938.kxcdn.com/assets/1-Menus/USA-Restaurants/GR-Burger-Menu-2016.pdf https://gordonramsayrest-2938.kxcdn.com/assets/1-Menus/USA-R...
- nkozyra 10y agoI don't see truffle oil specifically - it has truffle aioli which would obviously be a different condiment/ingredient. Their reaction in that clip seems to be in response to a few things: 1. the assertion there's no actual truffle in white truffle oil 2. that it's pungent and the contestant was pouring it on I imagine Ramsey is not opposed to truffles, per se, but certainly to fake scents manufactured to smell like truffles and using the flavor to excess.
- baby 10y agoDang it, I read that menu too fast :)
- yial 10y agoI see a lot of Truffle Aioli... which could be truffle oil, but could also be truffles mixed with oil, garlic, etc in the production process. (Or, perhaps more likely, it is truffle oil and his restaurant is just marketing it )
- codezero 10y agoAnd if you want to get meta angry, most olive oil isn't olive oil! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12281775 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12281775
- MrJagil 10y agoIt would be nice if there was a website where you could look up the local groceries you have in doubt. Maybe check how honest the brand is... We rate movies why not groceries?
- nicolas_t 10y agoIt's still quite possible to buy truffle oil with real truffles but of course, it's not going to be 2.5 pounds for 250ml but instead 12 pounds for 250ml... I usually buy this one http://www.edelices.co.uk/olive-oil-flavored-black-truffles.html http://www.edelices.co.uk/olive-oil-flavored-black-truffles.... which is quite good...
- hdlothia 10y agoMeh. The truffle fries at my local burger spot still taste good. As long as it doesn't kill me I'm not overly concerned.
- crystalmeph 10y agoI sort of agree. To be clear, I don't think they should be charging extra and calling something "truffle oil" if it's got no truffle molecules in it, or "olive oil" if it's actually some other kind of vegetable oil. That should be prosecuted as false advertising. That said, we keep hearing news like this, where what we thought was high-end "gourmet" food is actually the same as the stuff on the middle or bottom shelves at the market. And yet, we've been eating and enjoying this stuff for years. As long as it's marketed and priced honestly, I've got no problem buying and eating the cheap stuff.
- tptacek 10y agoFrench fries and popcorn are the only two allowable venues for truffle oil.
- baby 10y agoHere's on bottle I bought in Marianno's, a supermarket in the US. The bottle was around 10-15$ I think. http://i.imgur.com/6ygdyRR.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6ygdyRR.jpg I does say olive oil, flavored, but also has a dehydrated truffle in it. Does the dehydrated truffle not contribute anything to the taste? Also, it tastes pretty good.
- karlshea 10y ago> Does the dehydrated truffle not contribute anything to the taste It does not.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes up part of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients. So, what this is saying is 2,4-dithiapentane has little more to do with a laboratory than any other randomly selected ingredient, despite being linked to it in popular culture? (Or, more likely, that this is an extremely poorly chosen analogy...)
- brodie78382 10y agoThis analogy also gave me quite a pause. I'm going with the latter, personally.
- veridies 10y agoRelated question: where can I buy real truffles? I've had them in the past, but I have no idea where I can buy them from, online or in person, that I can trust the quality of. Anyone have any leads?
- parkaboy 10y agoNicer grocery stores tend to carry them. The Central Market chain in Texas tends to have them. Accessibility may also depend where you live--much easier to find in major cities.
- alfanick 10y agoif you like truffles you should try morels - awesome mushrooms IMO on par with truffles
- evincarofautumn 10y agoOne morning in college, I was walking to class and saw a cluster of morels growing near my apartment. I checked that they weren’t false morels, and resolved to pick them after I got back from class. I returned to find that the lawn had been mown, and those poor shrooms had been blown to smithereens. :(
- slr555 10y agoWhat I find interesting is that truffle oil is often denigrated for not containing actual truffle based solely on this lack of authenticity. I have eaten white truffles in Italy, black truffles and dishes with truffle oil. From an anecdotal perspective, white truffles are damn good, black truffles are pretty damn good and truffle oil can be a nice addition. As long as you're not being defrauded, I say no harm, no foul. Sometimes one wants to go whole hog and buy organic this and prime that and create all components of a dish from scratch. And there are many time when one simply wants an easy dish that tastes great and doesn't cost a mint. To me the real confusion in truffedom is caused by truffles being funghi and there also being chocolate truffles. That's just wrong.
- Posibyte 10y agoI read in the article that truffles are outside of the domain of human ability to control its growth. > Truffles are the world’s most expensive food because they resist all our efforts to control them. They cannot be mass produced or meaningfully eaten out of season. Have there been any efforts to create some controlled version of truffles to meet demand or make it more available? To me, the idea of a GMO truffle that's available year round seems pleasing.
- wmil 10y agoThe distinctive scent/flavor is probably highly influenced by soil conditions. Also they're symbiotic with trees, and the tree health probably also affects flavors. It'd probably be easier to GMO standard mushrooms to taste more like truffles.
- leephillips 10y agoThe recent discovery (appeared on HN I think) about a complex, three-organism symbiotic relationship in lichens explained why it has heretofore been nearly impossible to grow them in "captivity". I wonder if there is a similar discovery waiting to be made about truffles.
- munificent 10y agoYes, in fact the cultivated truffle industry is starting to get going now. In the past few years, farmed truffles have appeared on the market. I tried truffles for the first time a month ago and they came from Australia, presumably one of the new farms there. The history of this is pretty fascinating. Truffles grow in the roots of certain oak trees. To cultivate them, you need to plant those trees, carefully protect them from other undesired fungi, and wait 7 to 10 years for the fungus network to mature in the trees roots. Any given tree has an active lifecycle of only about 30 years, so after that, you have to replant. This process was figured out in the late 1700s. By the 1800s, there were over 100,000 acres of truffle farms in France, and truffles were a reasonably priced easily available foodstuff. Then WWI hit. 20% of the male workforce was killed and many others had left rural areas and moved into cities. Without expertise and available labor, many truffle fields were lost. This is when they became a rare expensive luxury. In the past few decades, after truffles became fashionable, cultivation has started again. It's only in the past few years that these new fields have begun to sell product. Going forward, you can probably expect real truffles to become more common and less expensive. Oh, and the truffle I tried was shaved on top of a mushroom risotto. It's possibly the best tasting thing I have ever eaten.
- danielhooper 10y agoThe truffle oil you buy from the grocer has a deserving reputation, it's just scented oil, but I've eaten in restaurants where their truffle oil was literally sliced black truffles in olive oil, so at least on a restaurant menu you shouldn't dismiss "truffle oil" immediately.
- tptacek 10y agoFair enough, but at least in the US, if you're not eating prix fixe or paying $30+ per plate, you should assume things that are "truffled" don't contain actual truffles. Also: apparently (according to eGullet, at least), oil infusions of real truffle aren't all that powerful, and if you're trying to disperse truffle flavor in a fat, butter is the way to go (you end up with flecks of truffle strewn throughout).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- anexprogrammer 10y agoTL;DR Why don't US consumers give a toss about consumer protection? This comes up time and again on HN. Most recently Apple not recognising the iPhone 6 faults. US consumer protections appear to be none existant. I've long known things were more "relaxed" over there, but it seems relaxed to point of no longer even basically functional. What the hell happened since the start of the 20th C when there were efforts both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that the food you buy is what it claims to be, unadulterated and safe? That stemmed from widespread adulteration, short measures, and often horrific safety. Why are American consumers (Republicans included) not picketing and email bombing the Whitehouse or Congress? Do you not want to buy what you expect you're buying? Do you like paying expensive restaurants for Artisan food when they apparently buy the lot from the nearest discount wholesaler? UK has the Tory party, who also love the market as the solution to everything, even what it patently cannot solve. Every now and then they suggest some industry voluntary agreement, or to relax some aspect of labelling. These ideas rarely hit statute, as the Tory voters are consumers too and don't want safety to be simply handed to multinationals. It's going to lose them voters, so we usually end up with something fairly acceptable. EU legislation helps greatly on this too. We had the piece about restaurants in the US recently. That gave the impression restaurants able to lie to such an extent that the expensive "organic locally sourced salmon" you order from the menu might be none of those things. If it were the UK, and you sold Truffle Oil containing no truffle, the retailer has broken the law and would be liable to fines and recalls(usually used for safety issues, or discovering beef isn;t). The retailer can then claim against the supplier or manufacturer. There are legally mandated amounts where you can name something Chocolate Spread (min % choc), reduce it below and you end up in the band where you have to call it Chocolate Flavoured Spread (As found in cheaper ranges). Keep going to the point of no chocolate and you have to switch to "flavour" which can be artificial flavourings (bottom of the heap discounters). Those wordings correlate to whatever percentages or weights have been mandated. Large retailers therefore test products for safety, legality, labelling before first sale, and they'll periodically randomly check. When this comes up, Americans often claim this isn't possible, there's simply too much stuff. Walmart (Asda) do it here, and if you look at supplier guidlines for any large UK retailers they'll all have details of the testing process you as a supplier are expected to meet. We then have Trading Standards who randomly check products on sale for safety, especially food, and including restaurants. Breach those rules and you can go to prison, or have the business closed. They can, and do, test for the foods being what are claimed, the presence of allergens, labelling and even whether it's organic or not. All is not perfect here, of course. The Conservatives reduced the number of Trading Standards such that the public are at higher risk (not enough to go around), and some labelling has minor loopholes such as get outs for country of origin, and the assorted terms "farm fresh", "free range" and the like. They sometimes don't legally mean what common sense and the public think they do. So if I buy a bottle of Truffle Oil here and it has none, I can sue Tesco (not for very much I expect). Realistically I'd take it back for a refund, or more sensibly send it to Trading Standard who can send a letter with legislative force.
- cmurf 10y agoTruffles, like most mushrooms, contain basically 0% fat. 0.2g of fat in a 28g truffle is basically fat free. No fat, no oil to extract.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoThis hypothesis can be easily and cheaply tested: buy some nice normal mushrooms and fry them in olive oil. Does the oil taste of mushrooms afterwards? (If you want to do it properly, carefully heat a few cups of olive oil with mushrooms in it, let it simmer for half an hour and then let it cool completely before draining.)
- cmurf 10y agoI'm not suggesting there are no oil soluble materials in mushrooms. But just because there are such materials does not mean there is any such thing as "truffle oil" or "mushroom oil" in the same way there are nut, avocado, and olive oils which are produce by extraction. To actually get truffle oil would be insanely expensive and insofar as I'm aware, there's no evidence either the flavor or smell we're interested in with truffles is even in its own (minimal) fats.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoWell, "X oil" does not necessarily mean "oil made by pressing X", it can also mean "oil infused with X". Case in point: chili oil, or "olio al peperoncino", has been made in Italy for centuries and the name is not made up to confuse consumers. In fact, one can argue that the English language is really the problem here, because it does not have prepositions like e.g. Italian has. In Italian, we wouldn't be having this argument, because "olio al peperoncini" or "olio al tartufo" are clearly in a different class of things from "olio di olivo" or "olio di noce".
- apendleton 10y agoSure, but lots of "X oil" products, especially where "X" is a flavoring ingredient, are oils from other sources infused with that ingredient for taste. "Chili oil" is not "oil pressed from chilis," it's "neutral oil flavored with chilis," and nobody expects otherwise or is confused. The complaint here isn't that truffle oil isn't pressed from truffles, it's that it's neither that nor oil flavored with truffles. Truffles are not involved.
- randrews 10y agoAlso, duck sauce contains no duck.
- NoGravitas 10y agoDuck sauce is a sauce you put on duck. Is truffle oil an oil you are supposed to put on truffles?
- mmcclellan 10y agoIf this is true of Truffle salt, then I have definitely fell for it before. At least Wikipedia suggests truffle salt is not usually of synthetic origin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_salt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_salt)
- dredmorbius 10y agoFor related topics, see: fraud, signalling, Veblen goods, status, status signalling, and aspirational goods. Something rare and expensive is used to give the appearance of quality, undercut by not only the lack of the underlying element within the good (a chemical imposter is substituted), but with either an implication or outright false representation that the aspirationally desired quality is in fact present. There's a tremendous amount of criticism of the concept of market function in this story.
- koliber 10y agoThere are many things that are flavored like something, but don't actually contain any extract from the actual thing. I don't think you should focus on truffle oil. This sort of thing is all around you, with many types of food. Often times, the molecules used to flavor these foods are a major component of a flavor of a given fruit, vegetable, nuts, or fungus. However, it is sometimes cheaper to produce them synthetically rather than extract them. In many cases the stuff used to flavor the food was never in the thing whose flavor is being imitated. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate is used to imbue a banana flavor. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaldehyde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaldehyde gives you an almond flavor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin is pretty much what you get in most vanilla-flavored things - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dithiapentane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dithiapentane is used to make truffle-flavored oil The list goes on and on. It's great to be aware that there is an industry in making things that taste like other things. If you walk down your supermarket isle and pay attention, you will notice that many things are not what they seem. You will first feel surprised, maybe cheated, and perhaps angry. Is truffle oil with truffles a scam? I don't know. I was certainly fooled once. I now try to pay attention to these types of things more. Things flavored with actual extracts tend to cost more and are harder to find. However, with many things, once you taste the real thing, you will notice that the fake stuff is off. Often times, the synthetically flavored food taste flat, sometimes chemically, and fake. Don't get angry. Get educated, spread the knowledge, and pay attention to what you eat!
- JBReefer 10y agoWhy do I have to be angry? Is it not possible to appreciate that more things now taste like vanilla, which is quite expensive when extracted using traditional methods?
- 4ad 10y agoThe problem with truffle oil is that it smells like gasoline, not that it's synthetic. It smells nothing like truffles. And it can't be made any better since the compounds that give truffles their complex signature are not soluble in oil. There's a resemblance between rubbing alcohol filtered through bread and bourbon, just like there's a resemblance between truffle oil and real truffles, but the comparison is really apt. Even though there's some resemblance, it's nothing alike, and it's really bad.
- shanev 10y agoNot surprised. There are many products like this. Most commercial maple syrup for example contain no actual maple syrup, just flavored corn syrup.
- dec0dedab0de 10y agoNot in Vermont. http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133456136/Vermont-To-McDonalds-Dont-Mess-With-Maple-Syrup http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133456136/Vermont-To-McDonalds...
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThat's "pancake syrup" or "Maple-flavoured syrup" or just "syrup." anything labeled maple syrup, by law, must be maple syrup.
- kazinator 10y agoCannot parse: "it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes up part of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients." Synthetic 2,4-dithiapentane is associated with some laboratory somewhere, whereas "Californian food", whatever that is, isn't necessarily "local and organic". It's not local if I'm enjoying it in New York rather than in California, and it's not organic if it didn't come from an organic farm.
- aidenn0 10y ago> 2,4-dithiapentane Now I know what to blame when my roommate pours a couple tablespoons of truffle-oil on whatever it is she is cooking.
- mmanfrin 10y agoTruffle oil is just the less-scary-sounding version of adding msg to a dish. 'Truffle flavoring' is plain msg, most likely. MSG is great for cooking, it is the taste of "Umami". Umami/Truffle/Parmesan are all just means of adding this msg taste to things without triggering the anti-MSG rhetoric. The Family Seasoning for Steak: Lowry's Garlic Salt, black pepper, msg. Delicious.
- huhtenberg 10y agoI beg to differ :) http://i.imgur.com/RtAsZKp.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RtAsZKp.jpg This is from a fancy-ish local (European) supermarket that's generally praised for the quality food they sell. The cost was around $15.
- stouset 10y agoThe flavor compounds in truffles aren't oil-soluble. So even if you bought a piece of truffle dunked in oil, you're probably not getting what you hope to. If it tastes like truffles, that flavor is virtually guaranteed to not come from the truffle at the bottom but instead from 2,4-dithiapentane.
- huhtenberg 10y agoOi vey, please kindly adjust your tinfoil headwear. They might be insoluble in theory. In practice, it's dead simple to infuse oil with truffles - take oil, heat it up, add shaved truffles and let it sit for a bit.
- stouset 10y agoNow leave that bottle on a shelf for a week, and see if the original bears any resemblance. It won't. This isn't controversial, it's basic chemistry. The aromatics in truffles (excluding 2,4-dithiapentane) are water-soluble, not fat-soluble. Applying heat to your truffles-in-olive-oil mixture is not going to change this simple fact.
- huhtenberg 10y ago> The aromatics in truffles (excluding 2,4-dithiapentane) are water-soluble, not fat-soluble. Source, please. What you say goes against what I personally sniffed at my friend's house, which was the home-made truffle oil as per above.
- 1812Overture 10y agoThose are almost certainly random mushroom chunks and not actual truffle. A lot of brands do that as a deception.
- dsego 10y agoTruffles kinda lose their appeal when you have two lagottos digging some up every few days.
- jheriko 10y agoi am not surprised at all. a lot of this new fancy food type stuff is a scam... in most cases selling inferior products and scams at higher prices. "organic" means "not made with the benefit of modern developments in agriculture" after all... i am stunned why people think this is a good thing. noble savage "logic" perhaps?