However there was a missed opportunity to end the film on the brilliantly directed scene of the gourmet eating the fried eggs with truffles. The perfect way to end a film about gathering truffles.
Yeah. In Italy it's a different story though. We ended up with way too many black truffles last year than we knew what to do with. Helped to know the right people of course and clearly this hobbyist collection process doesn't scale. But for the locals and local restaurants they are well catered for... for a while.
me neither, but I can attest to the massive difference between flash freezing and freezing from other foods. I would assume the same holds true here, as well: significantly less cell damage during flash freezing, preserving more or original flavor and texture.
This random culinary blog seems to say it's kind of true that you can't preserve the original truffle through freezing, the process changes them. They compare it to freezing fresh bread - the result is safe to eat, but not the same as the original.
That's why the places which have done that to you, without you noticing or even suspecting, don't show it to you: if you see it, you'll imagine you can tell. You can't.
The difference is quite stark and easy to tell. Putting bread in the freezer results in bread that is like week-old stuff. It's absolutely not a trick of perception.
But perhaps the effect differs according to the kind of bread.
Needing special equipment or an unusual process to defrost indicates that it doesn't freeze well in the sense most people mean, but that it can be done with effort.
When I need to freeze bread, I don't bake the loaves fully first. I get them maybe 80% the way, then freeze. Then I can complete the bake after thawing.
I get reasonably decent results that way, although you can still tell.
They definitely can be frozen. My girlfriends Italian family does it all the time. They start to lose flavour after a month or two in the freezer though and the texture is very conspicuously different. But absolutely good enough for slicing onto pasta.
Huh, TIL. I never did much enjoy the “truffle” flavored stuff, makes sense now. It really does smell like petroleum, I suppose it only makes sense if that’s where they get it.
How does it make sense? The stuff that makes petroleum smell like petroleum is not that stuff, so the fact that it smells like it could just be a coincidence. It's never smelled like petroleum to me, though.
If I get something in a restaurant (in EU) that has "truffles" in it the taste is exactly like described in the article. Kind of gross and very pungent. I don't exactly go to high end restaurants often.
Absolutely. Here's a random example (Google translation). It has both the aroma in it and the cheap, allegedly tasteless, truffles in it. They have another product that purports to have no aroma and the most expensive truffles in it (around 1%); kind of hard to believe.
Tartufi di Fassia Tartufata with black truffles is made in Italy exclusively with organic black truffles and the natural aroma of black truffles. This tartufata comes without any artificial flavors and you can taste this unadulterated and delicious taste with every bite.
Shipping weight: 120 g per piece
Ingredients:
Mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), extra virgin olive oil, 6% summer truffle (Tuber Aestivum vitt), salt, parsley, black truffle flavored preparation* (extra virgin olive oil, black truffle flavorings), parsley, garlic*.
He did not say he made it himself. In this case you can objectively compare. But if you get it from a friend from a friend, chances are it got truffle aroma mixed in, with good intentions, without knowing it is artificial but nonetheless.
A friend of ours has a truffle farm (in France) and he does very well selling to restaurants all over Europe. The taste is nice but can be overbearing if you put too much. Don’t think I ever had the synthetic one as I was raised with real truffle taste. Did not know you could not freeze/keep them; will ask my friend now.
Can confirm some of this. The real problem is expensive synthetic stuff. Makes sense to imitate the real deal, since truffles exist in very small quantities. But at least say so.
Just because something is extracted from petroleum doesn't mean it must always taste or smell like gas. We have plenty of synthetic compounds that taste nothing like it at all.
That said, it's very ugly that this happens, I hope the EU will start protecting the term truffle.
Truffles have hundreds of chemicals in them, it's a complex aroma. Truffle flavour is one single note from this, usually at a very high intensity. It's a different experience.
(note that this is true for many artificial flavors, there's lots of esters often known as "pear" "banana" "strawberry" etc but as I'm sure you are aware artifical banana candy is a long long way from tasting like an actual banana.
Explains a lot. I remember having truffle shavings at the table on pasta at a posh italian restaurant in the early 2000, and it was reassuringly expensive. Didn't taste of much, I wasn't overwhelmed. A bit earthy, but nothing special. Then I read somewhere that some people can't taste truffle. So I put it down to that.
More recently if I get something that says "truffle", it's this crazy almost garlic style punch (without the aftertaste of garlic). I've been confused why my experience of this changed so much from then to now… should have known I was being scammed!
There's the kicker. Truffles aren't beloved because of their flavor (which is fine), they're beloved because of their rarity and expense, which allows you to signal your social status. They're the diamonds of the food world.
When I was younger I used to believe when people talked about how amazing certain items or experiences were. They were often very expensive, or very hard to get to. I used to believe that they really were such a unique and special experience and that was why people would go to the trouble and expense of having it.
Being older now, I see that the real value in the item or experience was being able to tell me about it. So many things fall into this category, if not completely, at least partially.
Truffles vary in taste and intensity, yet the price will easily be set on classes that ignore the quality of the single tuber. Some may taste horribly - it can happen - and yet be sold with a price following their class (not their individual merit).
I am afraid it is racist: all truffles of the same family are regarded the same by some, in spite of strong individual differences.
I perfectly remember being disgusted forever by a plate of pastas with truffle oil, I called the waitress and complained about the petroleum smell (and taste).
Before that I had the real thing and it was amazing. I'm not sure if I will ever try again because of the bad memory.
Maybe not directly mentioned, but a linked article says "2,4-Dithiapentane is the dimethyldithioacetal of formaldehyde. It is prepared by the acid-catalyzed condensation of methyl mercaptan, the main aromatic compound in both halitosis and foot odor and a secondary compound in flatulence,[1] with formaldehyde."
It's also an aromatic component in cheese and in real truffles. This is a misrepresentation of the facts on the same level as "dihydrogen monoxide makes up the majority of urine, industrial detergent, antifreeze, human sweat, and pus."
Is this your reference? "Truffle oil can be produced using any oil. Common versions use olive oil, or a more neutral flavorless oil such as canola or grapeseed oil."
Now tell me, why would a petroleum product be used with it's foul smell, when olive oil, canola, and grapeseed oil are available?
More to the point, can anyone find a truffle oil where a petroleum product is listed in the ingredients?
You’re missing the point - that the truffle flavour is derived from petroleum. It’s not about the oil component, which as you say is a normal food oil.
The idea is: fake truffle oil is some olive/rapeseed oil with a bit of 2,4-dithiapentane added to it. I don’t know to what extent this flavouring is actually petroleum-derived, but the point is that it’s not actual truffle.
It mentions the flavor is produced by “one synthetic compound”, and then links to articles on 2,4-dithiapentane which is generally derived from petroleum, though it can be derived from other compounds.
I'm French and I live in France. Here, most of our truffles are real truffle.
We do get some Tuber aestivum as well, but that's alright because they're displayed as "truffe d'été". No harm done.
As the article said, the "truffle flavour" has nothing to do with the real stuff, and outside of France, Italy and Spain, you probably won't get them on the market. You might be lucky in some restaurants all over Europe. But everywhere else it's propably not the "real" black truffle. Especially, if they put some in ketchup...
In very vast territories of Western Europe, coldtea, direct providers such as restaurateurs still work through reputation.
You'd stop working if the clientele saw you are not trustworthy.
Edit:
What you will see in the frontpage of the "Truffle Dogs University" in Roddi - http://www.universitadeicanidatartufo.it/prodotti.htm - is relevant: you will see the picture of a guy in front of the products. He "puts his face on it" - that is his reputation at implicit stake -, and he is proud. That is the normal standard. Also notice one important thing: «Available for /small/ shipments» - the goods are in limited quantity (fake ones could be produced ad libitum).
What’s sad is even if you get some real truffle (grated/chips…) customers expect a stronger taste so it’s mixed with oil with synthetic aroma. In the Perigord region there are controlled open markets I visited, a 20g truffle for like 2 persons costs around 15€.
(Edit: no it's not, it's indicum, see below. In the OP, the former is described as very mild but somewhat prized; the latter as tasteless, cheap, used for appearance (& perhaps in combination with synthetic flavouring) only.)
> There is also the notorious tuber indicum, the Chinese black truffle, which has flooded the European and American market. It has no taste or smell, and its price starts at less than ten euros per kilo. Visually, it does not differ much from the black winter truffle, and it will often be falsely presented as such, although the flavor and the aroma do not resemble in any way.
> This truffle also has a derogatory nickname: potatoes - because the price and taste do not differ much from those of potatoes. If you get a truffle with a dark core during summer, it is also a scam.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are traded locally or internationally
Right there: The term "pine nut" is generic. Probably, the "Italian" ones that you like are a particular species. Are you really sure they are Italian, or actually grown in a neighboring country, then through the magic of "last step processing" imported and repackaged as "Italian"? Italy is famous for it in international trade. And, the "Chinese" ones (it is a massive country after all -- same size as EU?) are a different species -- perhaps less tasty. My guess: Pine nuts are very labor intensive. As a result, imported pine nuts from developing countries are much cheaper than those from developed Italy.
In Italy (And Southern France and Spain), most likely nuts from Mediterranean stone pines, Pinus Pinea [1]. In French it's called "pin pignon", which means (pine) nuts pine. I don't think these pine trees exist in China, although some areas do have a lot of pine trees. Maybe those Chinese pine nuts are from Pinus koraiensis [2] or Pinus armandii [3] as the nuts look reasonably similar.
Excellent, informative reply! It sounds like tree farms should try to grow this tree in India, North Africa, or Turkey where climate is similar, but labour is much cheaper.
Well real or not, the pine nut from the stone pine is vastly superior in flavor and aroma to the Chinese imports, which is where the comparison to the truffle comes from.
Pine nuts from the stone pine are really expensive. Although, in this case, it's rather easy to notice the difference.
I won't buy pine nuts anymore, since I'll never know their provenance, and I got pine nut mouth once from a batch from Whole Foods. Pine nut mouth is not fun.
I am Italian, and went for truffles a few times as my grand-uncle used to. We got both tuber melanosporum and tuber aestivum, it was fun.
In my experience in Italy, I would say you usually get real truffle outside of scammy tourist places, but it is generally unspecified on the menu. AKA, you are getting the cheap one rather than the expensive one, unless the menu says the opposite.
If/When you are in Paris, "Le comptoir corrézien" [0] is a very good address to buy truffle (also foie gras etc). They supply some of the top fancy restaurants.
I agree with your overall sentiment. I'd never buy or consume foie gras and don't care that it's a "cultural thing".
But your general description of meat production is a bit too simplistic. The main issue with it, for me, is not the very act of taking a life for food. It's about what comes before it. The life the animals have in captivity. There are differences of course, but generally lifestock is held in too little space, too high stocking density, inappropriate bedding, flooring and treatment in case of diseases. It's a matter of cost. One can provide conditions where lifestock is suffering much less, having a good life even, but that means much more cost per pound meat sold. In addition, beginning of life (insemination which can be "natural" or artificial or some kind of in-between rape kind) and end (different ways of taking the life, some gas suffocating the animal causing terrible pain, or bolt-into-brain or) can also provide or prevent different levels of suffering. Again it's a matter of cost.
I personally do eat meat. Not everyday but most days. I do try to ensure that the farmer provided the animals with a good life, as I know most of them personally. Or it's a wild animal, running through the forest until the last moments. Not practical for everybody, and pretty pricey, but avoids the worst.
As you see, suffering is key here. The mere act of taking a life is "natural". (A bolt through the brain is quick and less painful than the long hunt by a pack of wolves or a lion.) It's still a kill, but that's the balance I'm striking personally.
Everyone strikes a balance personally. Myself, being vegan, I still drive a car which kills some bugs. So I have no pretence I'm "fully right".
That said, let's consider dairy. Cows have their babies taken from them right after birth, which entails days of audible suffering from the mums (they cry for days). This happens 4-5 times in their live. The baby is fed formula, the moms milk is taken and sold for profit. That's the suffering you mentioned. That's impossible to avoid when producing dairy at scale.
Yes, it's correct that a majority of larger scale dairy farming today practices this. The usual argument is that it reduces separation stress (since the calf is assumed to be too young to remember and the cow didn't yet get used to having it by its side), but that argument does not have actual scientific evidence.
But it's far from impossible to avoid. There are farms that keep calves with their moms for the first months and this is an active topic of academic research in animal welfare groups around the world, mostly in Europe. There are some drawbacks, like obviously the calf drinks some of the milk that otherwise could be sold, but there are advantages too, like calves growing faster and having better health which could compensate for these effects, but again, this is still being researched.
So, it's not even clear that it's economically better to separate cow and calf right after birth (dairy industry is quite conservative and slow to adopt change.) But even if there is an economic hit, it's not so big and consumers who care could just pay more. It could eventually be included in regulations for dairy farming, and until then, people who care (like you and me) can voluntarily buy milk from farms that practice keeping them together. Apart from being better for the animals, it also shows farmers and regulators that people care and this can work.
I respect you going vegan, but for this particular problem there are solutions and it seems like there are worse things that we do to animals.
There are people producing foie gras nowadays without force-feeding the animals. I don't know if that's what the shop linked above sells or not. There are humane ways of producing it, though unfortunately I think the majority is still made by force-feeding.
Are you making an equivalency between discriminating between various ethnic groups and discriminating between species ? I don't know where your society is going but I sure don't want to go with it.
Yeah I'm French too and second that. But also, I wasn't aware before reading this article that there was such a hype around truffles in the rest of the world? Why is everyone offering truffle-this and truffle-that? In France in my experience truffle dishes are quite rare and done in specialized restaurants. There are certainly counter-examples, but I don't think you can find many truffle-flavored pizzas in Paris for example.
In the US I can go to the supermarket and get "truffle macaroni and cheese" in a box for $5, because everyone knows that truffles are this rare, mysterious, and luxurious thing, and so incorporating them (or their essence) into relatively inexpensive food items allows companies to tack a small amount onto the price, but gives the consumers the feeling that even this luxurious thing is available to them.
Similar to why people might knowingly buy knock-off "designer" items.
I dunno (nor care) about the quality of a Gucci handbag but the Porsche is actually a high-end car, so while there very much is “status” associated, at least you’re getting something cool/fun as hell at the same time.
> I can go to the supermarket and get "truffle macaroni and cheese" in a box for $5, because everyone knows that truffles are this rare, mysterious, and luxurious thing
I'm sorry and I'm not picking on you or trying to be smart, but this doesn't make sense: anything you buy for $5 in a supermarket is neither rare nor luxurious, by definition. Why do people fall for this.
It is all marketing. The US has been about 'lifestyle' brands for a while. The US wants to sell you an upscale experience, whether it is really upscale or not. Things with truffle flavor seem to be a fad at the moment.
Think about Starbucks. You don't need a $7 coffee drink, but its sweet and tasty, maybe you like the homey atmosphere and fake friendliness from the staff, maybe you like using the fancy names, maybe you like being seen with your Starbucks cup, all because you too can afford a luxury lifestyle. Its all marketing to sell you overpriced coffee and milk.
I much prefer the abundance of smaller privately owned shops you tend to find in Europe over the factory made franchise options you see all over the US. Most Americans seem to have no idea.
Not sure why are you singling out US here. People all over the world like "ecsotic foreign" stuff and pay premium for it. Starbucks has 2000+ stores in Europe despite having a lot of smaller (and sometimes shittier) smaller shops. Same as in US.
The truffle flavor is no different from the fake "college t-shirts"[1] that big pseudo-american chains like NewYorker[2] sell all over the Europe.
The price of a Lexus is nowhere near that of a Ferrari. A Mercedes is also essentially a Toyota with nicer interior and more gadgets - if you want to put it that way.
It seems like you’re putting additional meaning into luxury beyond “much more money and looks like that”. There is no inherent value for that extra, afaic.
Fresh in-season produce direct from a high-quality local farm can definitely be rare and luxurious even if it's sold in a supermarket for $5. This is especially true of things that are only in season for a few weeks and are from a farm small enough to only sell to supermarkets within a few miles.
These things may seem commonplace locally, but to people on the other side of the country these "cheap" things can be a rare luxury.
I don't think anyone falls for that, everyone knows they cannot buy a truffle for $5. They buy it for the taste, wherever it comes from (e.g. crude oil) and that's ok.
haha and I guess the camembert you have with your fake truffle is also fake camembert ^^ (I live in France and even here a lot of camembert in supermarkets are tasteless industrial crap made with pasterised milk, so I'd imagine in the rest of the world it must be pretty bad...)
The quality and price vary a lot, from a simple white base with truffle-flavored oil poured on top to slices of actual truffle, but truffle-flavored pizzas are on the menu of lots of restaurants in Paris.
American food has historically been focused on being cheap and filling (this isn’t new: you can find 18th century British tourists complaining about how the colonies mostly had overcooked flavorless meat) and for a long time somewhat industrial in focus (large scale distribution of bland things).
That started to change in the 1970s and 80s but that still tended to be focused on specific ingredients (which have producers advertising them heavily) with the same expectation that they’re available year round everywhere. There were whole campaigns promoting things like Angus beef as a premium ingredient rather than the more easily produced but less flavorful breed it actually is.
Truffle derivatives fit well into that: toss some “truffle salt” or oil onto the same hamburger or French fries you were serving last week and it’s now $10 more expensive. The truffle products don’t need to be local or in season, so anyone can do that. Plus since the flavor change is quite modest most of your customers will consider buying it.
My understanding is that this impression is heavily colored by WWII-era shortages, and also the difference between country and urban availability of fresh ingredients before then.
It’s really weird. But truffle stuff outside of France mostly comes from truffle oil which is really intense in flavor (personally I like it), much different from truffle dishes you can get in high end restaurants in France (which personally I like, but isn’t the crazy flavor people seem to think it is, I even got the VGE soup at Bocuse and it’s Ok guys)
Counterpoint: grocery stores in Paris regularly sell synthetic truffle flavored potato chips.
Speaking as an American who lived in France for several years in many different cities both metropolitan et d'outre-mer, from Paris to Entre-Deux and everywhere in-between, I can tell you that a lot of how French people feel about food in their own country stems largely from aspect blindness, and a lot of how Americans feel about food in France stems largely from never actually living there. France has the same flavors and foods available as everywhere else in roughly the same proportion if you spend the time looking.
There are differences of course. The US has many more different varieties of every kind of produce. In Paris you find "an apple" or "a lettuce", while in the US you have to choose between 10 different varieties side-by-side. On the flip side, France has many more varieties of pureed pork generally available.
People should do more thinking with their taste buds and less with what they hear. If they enjoy this truffle oil made from gasoline, why not eat it. Otherwise leave it be.
This morning I had an expensive artisan craft coffee. I've never been able to taste the difference, so I'm not going to act like it was something extraordinary. Atmosphere was nice though.
I love coffee, and most of the time I go to specialty coffee shops just because they know the basics of making coffee: not heat up the milk more than necessary, and the coffee beans shouldn't be burned too much (which is necessary for the worst part of the coffee beans).
Sadly most of the coffee shops don't even try to achieve these two things.
> If they enjoy this truffle oil made from gasoline, why not eat it
The article does say that, but makes the (valid) point that it's not okay to sell it pretending that it's "the real stuff" with a corresponding price tag.
What I'm curious about is that the author seems to suggest these artificial flavouring are unhealthy ("causing long-term damage to [...] your stomach and palate") but doesn't say why.
If you ask for a glass of water and a waiter gives you a glass of urine, do you smile and drink it because urine also has H2O in it and therefore has the same chemical found in water?
They analyze the real thing for what makes it smell or taste like it does. Then they take one or a few major molecules that make up the taste and that are easy to derive cheaply from something else and use it for flavoring stuff. The real thing probably had a hundred different things make up its smell and taste.
Bonus points if it can be derived from something that allows them to label it as "natural". Lots of natural flavor is produced by molds/funghi actually that have been modified to produce the molecules needed. Example: https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/Edible-fungus-yields-n...
Case in point I just recently read here on HN I believe that banana flavored stuff still tastes like the old bananas that we can no longer buy because that variety is no longer possible to grow. The molecules they extracted from that aren't in the bananas variety we can currently buy.
Anecdote: we did this in our high school chemistry class w/ pineapple flavour, i.e. we created artificial pineapple flavouring right there in class. It was very strong and not as complex as a real pineapple, but identifiable.
> like the old bananas that we can no longer buy because that variety is no longer possible to grow.
that would be the Gros Michel. It is a common misconception that it no longer exists, but you can you actually still buy it (and grow it), you will find many results in google. It's just been replaced in the mass market.
TLDR: it was made economically unsustainable to grow because of something called Panama Disease, which Gros Michel is susceptible to, where modern bananas are not
It’s on my list to try one day, and see if it’s as good as the hype.
It’s one of my life’s entertaining side-missions to try as many types as possible, ever since I found out that “the (cavendish) banana” is not the end of the story.
I’ve ticked off Cavendish (of course), dwarf cavendish, lady finger, apple banana, Pisang Awak, red Dacca, Fe’i and various plantains so far. Many more to go!
The chemical used for artificial vanilla is found in real vanilla, but the artificial and real vanilla are rather different from each other. I can roll with either, but if I'm paying real vanilla prices for vanillin, I've been ripped off.
It think the difference lies in valuing the process or the result.
Personally I think like you, if the product tastes good and the atmosphere is fine for the advertised price I'm 100% satisfied.
If the restaurant manages to achieve that with cheaper ingredients (while maintaining hygiene and not outright lying) I consider that a good business practice.
But what is constitutes outright lying? Some would assume that the word "truffles" on its own means the genuine article. Others would say they are telling the truth if they state that it is not the real thing in the small print. It wouldn't surprise me if someone tried to trademark Real Truffles for their substitute. All would claim that they are telling the truth, never mind deny they are not outright lying. Technically, they are correct.
Deception is not a good business practice, even in the slightest. It is the sign of someone who is solely interested in short term gain, rather than establishing a lasting institution.
But this is something that's really difficult to regulate. A good example is that wine brewed from natural yeasts that smells like horseshit. It was branded as "barnyard".
> But this is something that's really difficult to regulate. A good example is that wine brewed from natural yeasts that smells like horseshit. It was branded as "barnyard".
"Selling crap as premium" is hard to regulate. Yes, you can put laws in place to say what is allowed to be called truffles etc., but it will be hard to stop people from selling what is technically a truffle as a premium truffle. I.e., selling crap as premium.
The issue here isn't whether a wine company can creatively brand smelly wine as "barnyard". Before we even deal with the question of how do we grade products, we first have to ask whether companies should be able to simply lie to customers about whether listed ingredients are even present.
That is definitely true, I got a bit side tracked there to be honest. However, those laws already exist in the EU, so the article could probably be summarized as "truffles should be protected".
There's also the funny angle that some real "premium" stuff is actually awful crap, or at least an utterly crappy experience.
Years ago, I bought some very pungent blue cheese, must have been either from SW France or NE Spain. Definitely not a household name, and priced quite high. One of the worst eating experiences I can remember. The flavour was so strong a small crumb was enough to burn your tastebuds. Almost painful to eat, and we had to toss the thing out.
It smelled really good, though. I learned my lesson. These days I refuse to buy any unfamiliar cheese I can't sample in the shop first.
That is due to a species of yeast called Brettanomyces, usually shortened to brett. Judicious use of brett can impart smoky or leathery characteristics - lumped together politely as "barnyard" or "horse blanket" notes in beer or wine.
The wine industry is pretty well regulated in the EU. In my country wine was generally a hit and miss before we got into the EU. Now, almost everything bottled over 5€ is okay and also cheaper wine sold in bulk. This year we've bought some excellent white wine by the bulk directly from the producer and it was cheaper than gasoline. I mostly buy local bottled wine rather than imported table wine sold as premium. Why? Because I know most of the big producers and also some of the smaller ones.
If we go to another country with good wines, we ask the waiter and it works out better than looking at the wine menu and making assumptions. One waiter in Sicily even suggested that he chose the wine for us and we were very satisfied with his choice after we also tried to get the same wine ourselves and ordered something different.
Also, Moldova used to export crappy sweet wine before their agricultural products were banned in Russia. Now it exports mainly into the EU and they have some good quality wines if you skip the ones made from hybrid grape varieties, which I wonder why I've even found on the EU market. Must be the new 2021 regulation allowing hybrid varieties in wines with protected denominations of origin. Apart from the usual varieties, they also produce wines with a Georgian variety called Saperavi, which I like quite a lot and also a local older variety called Rara Neagra which is popular but I don't like because it's acidic, however it can be sucessfully used in blends where one needs more acidity.
It reminds me that in the USA there are rules for what constitutes a bourbon whiskey. You can make and enjoy other types of whiskey, just don't call them Bourbon.
There's also Jack Daniel's, from what I remember they actually pass the requirements to be a Bourbon, but the company chooses not to label it that way. That's also fine!
What wouldn't be fine is a whiskey calling itself rum or vodka, because when I buy one I don't expect to get the other.
> First people should not be lied to by restaurants and the food industry, and prices should not be jacked up selling crap as premium...
I would caveat that with: First people should ALL work in the hospitality and service Industry.
You will be shocked if you think this is the most egregious thing you will find in the culinary Industry.
Honestly, after what the Industry like since COVID, I hope it collapses and people just start to eat healthier at home, in the US the Industry has been consolidated by Corpos who could get millions in PPP and didn't have to pay it back and low interest rates to win a battle of attrition against the smaller spots who relied on word to muth and higher QC/QA to justify those high prices that the public feel entitled to complain about despite not knowing the mechanics of getting a kitchen to function let alone turn a profit.
It's sad... I really thought prior to COVID we were making serious inroads in educating the American population to something that most in Asia and Europe is pretty normalized: food culture.
As a cook that has worked in and ran kitchens in both Europe and N. America the fact that most people think that what is in those atrocious bottles (truffle oil) resembles anything like a black truffle underscores what I mean.
Most people in the US freak out when they see a vein in their shrimp let alone a head, whereas when you're in Spain the best part of a tapas bar is when the numbers are thin and the patrons still drinking get the good stuff like 'gambas' and you can suck the heads after having been served countless olives, patatas bravas or various bread with stuff plates with your drinks.
Personally speaking, I don't really think black truffles are that great and I've worked with quite a lot of them over the years, it mainly benefits a lot from it's marketing more than it's actual flavour.
The perfume it gives does enhance a dish, which makes it good to garnish as a table service option, but the taste is rather unremarkable to me, at best it's like having good biodynamicly grown garlic. White truffles are far more aromatic, and just keeping them in rice is enough to brighten up a rissoto, but also suffers from the 'too Earthy' category for most people's palettes unless they are trying to impress people who gravitate towards high end ingredients or are actually coming for that as the highlight of their meals while it's in season, which is an incredibly small percentage of patrons.
Yeah. I deliberately buy imitation truffle oil made from mixing whatever-pentane into cheap refined olive oil with full knowledge that it's fake. I also buy fake saffron, fake maple syrup, and fake vanilla essence.
With all these foods the real thing is better, but the substitute is also fine.
Sadly, I've met people that actually enjoy fake maple syrup more than the real stuff. To the point of actually disliking real maple syrup because "it doesn't taste like the thing" that they'd been eating since childhood.
Great point. It still makes me sad because I've unscientifically concluded that maple flavored corn syrup is unequivocally much worse for your health, on the basis that I want to justify still eating maple syrup and choose to believe that it's actually not the worst thing I could be eating, so it's ok to have it. This same unfounded belief has helped me curb my sweet tooth, as I no longer order pancakes or french toast, anytime I eat out, working at a fancier restaurant showed me that they all mostly use the exact same several gallon jugs of maple flavored syrup.
Fake saffron is the only thing I’ll disagree with here. It’s nothing like the real thing, and since most of the coloring in fake saffron comes from turmeric anyway, might as well use turmeric (and maybe something floral like rose water) as a substitute when you don’t want to splurge for the real thing.
I don't know if aunt jemima and similar brands of syrup count as "fake Maple syrup". It doesn't say maple syrup on the bottle anymore. They usually say "maple-flavored syrup" at worst, or just "syrup". It's not maple syrup, but it's not labeled as maple syrup and not advertised as maple syrup.
Imitation vanilla is labeled imitation vanilla. Not a secret that it's not made from actual vanilla.
I'm surprised honey hasn't come up here more. The majority of honey in the US contains very little actual honey, but the ingredients list just says "pure filtered honey". If you've ever had real honey, it's night and day. If you want a cheaper honey substitute, that's fine. If a company is labeling a cheaper honey substitute as "pure filtered honey", that's not fine.
I get honey from jars at the grocery store and, every once in awhile, from a local farm who supplies my local butcher shop (because I'm lazy, at the butcher, and realize I'm out of honey). The local farm honey is definitely real honey (the butcher shop people have been to the farm). Apart from the floral quality of the farm honey, I've never noticed a difference from the orange or blossom honey I get at the supermarket. I don't think most supermarket honey is fake. Maybe the bear honey is?
If it says honey on the jar and there is no ingredients list or the ingredients list says it’s honey, then it is honey (unless the producer is just absolutely breaking the label laws).
That said, you should be able to _easily_ distinguish different varieties of honey or even different sources of honey by tasting it. If you can’t then it’s likely a big commodity blend.
Go do a blind from a producer that lists the hive locations for the honey. It’s probably the product that has the most obvious “terroir” effect that I know of. I can tell the difference between honey from hives that are less than 2 miles apart (Woodlawn vs Englewood in Chicago).
A lot of honey is imported from places where it has been mixed with other sugars or adulterated in other ways. The bottlers either don't know or don't care because the price is lower and the profit margin is higher.
The labeling laws are being broken by a number of big producers. The adulterated honey is generally safe, but is not pure honey.
Exactly. I like artificial truffle flavor and use it sometimes in my cooking. No way would I pay for truffles. There's no gas-like aroma and I don't know what the author is going on about in that regard. I've had a meal with real truffle once and I must say that the artificial flavor does a pretty good job.
Restaurants being dishonest are maybe problem for honest ones next-door, but if the customer is happy I see no harm done.
Truffle fries don't contain truffles. French fries don't come from france. I don't think the restaurant is to blame for our language. You want every restaurant to start calling them immitation truffle fries?
That's not the point. The point is that calling it truffle oil is intentionally deceptive. Call the fake truffle oil something else, then see how many people still want to buy it.
Truffle oil is kinda like that artificial grape flavor. It's clearly not the real thing if you've tasted both. But if you're honest, that fake grape in a Fanta or whatever is tasty in its own way.
Similarly there's a burger joint near me that does truffle oil fries with the synthetic flavor. They aren't priced like it's some luxury thing either, they're just the standard fries at the price you'd expect. They're tasty. I don't see the point of being all huffy about it.
Yeah artificial banana is actually pretty good. I do like bananas and the synthetic stuff is nothing like the real thing.
I do like to think that sim-flavors will eventually get their own seat at the taste at the table but there is still correlation between interest in the prototype taste and the sims.
However I do like organic raspberry for example, synth raspberry is meh.
That doesn't work, it's called fraud and can be dangerous in some cases... For example, restaurants do that a lot with fish too and sometimes they serve you an alternative that is much more likely to contain heavy metals.
Even in grocery stores you can't be sure what kind of fish you buy.
It’s nice to be able to attribute noticeable differences to a reason so you can learn. Maybe you don’t notice much difference with coffee (I’m with you there as long as it’s well extracted), but if you’ve been to a nice restaurant and notice the Caesar salad tastes better than at Olive Garden despite having the same ingredients listed on the menu, it’s helpful to understand that the kitchen sources the ingredients daily from a local farm.
In France, Italy, Switzerland truffles are pretty common (usually summer truffles, occasionally black). You should buy these yourself, though; no guarantees in restaurants.
I watched a short documentary about truffles. They showed how truffles are analyzed with a microscope that is rendered with an old UI, 90s / early 2000s kind of stuff. It looked like an opportunity to build something more powerful.
It's not your stomach, it's your mind. To some degree as you adjust, your body may feel poisoned because your experience is so strange.
The trick to hassle free tripping:
In the morning have something very small. A short coffee and a pastry. Don't eat for 4-5 hours - non-negotiable. Eat your shrooms with a very small amount of water and maybe one or two crisps (or chips if you're from the US.)
Go sit down and relax :)
You will, with 95% certainty, feel absolutely fine.
Having food in your stomach triggers a need to expel it. Truffles are also rough on your stomach, but that's their nature, not the good stuff.
I believe truffle may be like coriander (cilantro) elucidating a disgust response in some people. I just cannot stand its smell, or taste, and avoid truffle fries and truffle oil extras.
It's not about being fungi, I love other mushrooms.
I love coriander. I just know some people say "soap" and wrinkle their noses. Well.. truffle does that to me, and I've had chunks of it the size of nuts in France in the early 70s, I know it wasn't some factory extract (it was the mayors birthday and we lucked into it with a local)
I have this issue as well. What drives me nuts is how people think it's a preference that I don't like cilantro. No, I'm fundamentally having a different experience. I have no idea what cilantro is supposed to taste like, but "fill a dish full of soap” seems very unlikely to be an intentional choice for a cook.
I've read that there is a compound in cilantro that we can taste that is untastable to other people. I've noticed that finally chopped and/or cooked cilantro is not anywhere near as strong. So it must be some volatile chemical. Once I was able to clearly identify the taste, I started noticing other tastes in raw vegetables that went away after fine-chopping and cooking. For the most part, I find raw vegetables almost inedible, especially things like bell peppers. But cooked up, they are completely fine.
I also noticed that, if I try to push through eating many raw vegetables, I start to have an allergic reaction on my tongue. This is especially true for cilantro, basil, celery, and to a lesser extent carrots and tomatoes. Again, cooked is no problem.
I'm my mind, they're all linked. Some uniqueness of my tongue genetics makes me susceptible to one or more certain chemicals that others can tolerate. And my tongue is trying to tell me it's bad for me.
The only actual investigation on the cilantro thing I’ve read was some years ago, I think by NPR. The guy went and had cilantro analysed by slow heating in a gas chromatograph, and while it turned out that others who enjoyed it could detect the negative flavour, he could not detect the compounds that others found appealing.
Someone I know had that, even the smell of coriander made them sick. But it passed after a few encounters with it and now they love it. I guess it varies in its constancy.
I think that people must have quite difference reactions to spicy food. I have friends that eat spicy food and they are more or less ok with it but complain it burns their lips. I eat the same spicy food and its hot AF and is burning my tongue.
Aroma Science Technology is widely used in the food industry, often out of necessity. There aren't enough strawberries in the world to meet the demand for strawberry flavoured ice cream. Food scientists identified the chemical that makes strawberry taste like strawberry and managed to produce it artificially. The same applies to truffle oil. At least in Europe it should be possible, other than by price, to identify if you are buying genuine truffle oil or truffle flavoured oil. However prepare to pay. 250 ml (8.5 fl Oz) of truffle oil cost around $100 at Fortnum and Mason. I would recommend you buy from reliable sources only and definitely resist to urge to buy before Christmas as the market is flooded with truffle flavoured alternatives at the moment.
In they end they just extract a single chemical and not the entire bouquet of flavours of a natural strawberry. However, if you ask a small child to taste strawberry flavoured ice cream and identify it is flavour they will get it right more often than not.
It is a good philosophical question, if in a 10,000 years people would still link the strawberry flavour with an actual strawberry, especially if advertising companies slowly tweak the image of a strawberry to look more appetising.
Small children who have eaten candy will also easily identify banana and grape flavors, even though neither has much connection to the fruit today. (Artificial banana flavor is modeled on the Gros Michel variety, which is effectively extinct, and grape flavors on Concord grapes, which are rarely eaten these days.)
Isn't that just by association to past experiences with strawberry-flavoured things?
I remember even as a child saying I like the flavour of strawberries, but I don't like strawberry-flavoured things. I'd eat the fruit, but not the ice-cream.
Vanilla is notorious for this. Vanilla extract tastes basically identical to real vanilla and is fully artificial (no vanilla pods involved in making it). I like to make crème brûlée in which it's a distinctive flavor. I sometimes use real vanilla pods, but hot damn are they expensive. Most of the time, it's just the extract.
Don't agree that vanilla extract is fully artificial; that would be vanilla flavouring. If you sell it as vanilla extract, I expect it to be extracted from vanilla pods.
And I don't agree that even vanilla extract from pods tastes like vanilla pods. I don't know a way to get the flavour of pods without using pods.
Most people wanting genuine truffle oil aren't likely to be price sensitive, however, you make a valid point. Unfortunately this time of year, before Christmas, search results are flooded with Christmas offers.
You are likely to get much better deals if you can buy locally in a truffle growing region.
You'll be pleased to know that if you went to the places where they do have the truffles in the ground, you do not need the restaurant to be «expensive» to be served real truffles. Black truffles are sliced on your "normal" ~10€ dishes.
You are misreading it completely: it is a preliminary "Do you slice the truffle on it? How is the dish prepared?". There exist perfectly appropriate ways of "«insisting»" ("Thank you, good, I would like to have it sliced in presence").
You put the slices on top: they are not dishes with preliminary preparation (which imply mixing the ingredients). It is just normal to do it in presence - and definitely sensible.
Waiters in restaurants used to serve the real deal expect you to do this, just like sommeliers will expect you to taste the wine before agreeing to buying the bottle.
They want people to know they're served real truffles, because that's what weeds out competitors cheating on products.
Not sure how legit this is, but Australia just had a bout of “truffles on everything” season in the last few months. And quite a few shops and markets had actual whole truffles to buy. Apparently they’re cultivated here?
tl;dr: Fake truffle tastes better than real truffle, to an extent that restaurants using real truffles are forced to flavor it. This makes connoisseurs mad while no-one else cares.
Maybe 5 years ago I was hanging out with a buddy and we took an angle grinder to an empty propane tank. When we were finished, we smelled uniquely awful. It turns out that added to propane is a tiny amount of the odourant Ethyl Mercaptan. Now when you’re using propane you get just enough of a whiff of it to remind you that you’re using propane, but if you get a smell of the inside of an empty propane tank? Well, something about the liquid propane residue that remains, some miracle of science and chemistry, creates a density of Ethyl Mercaptan that is shocking. Room-fillingly shocking. Clothes throwing away shocking. Many showers worth of shocking.
A couple years ago I had my first “truffle” experience with some truffle cheese and was like cutting back into that propane tank. Not the same in scale, but certainly in type. Tremendously similar smells. Since then I’ve been sad and thought I just managed to ruin truffles for myself. This article has given me hope.
I seriously hope you filled that propane tank full of water then drained it completely and left it upside down before cutting into it. Hole pointing down. This is an extreme fire and explosion hazard because propane sinks to the bottom of the tank.
Technically, it has grains. As it hardens, the liquid steel stuff clumps together not too unlike bread, with the boundary and grain size / mix being factors that affect the quality of the steel.
More like cast iron, and some lower-grade steels. Higher-grade steels tend to have their pores closed off, the grains welded shut/together as a part of the mechanical processing.
Sorry, not being technical. The pits is probably a better way to put it. Point being just because the tank is empty doesn’t mean it’s safe. Should still fill with water.
FWIW if you need to cut into a tank like this, a sawzall is a bit safer as you can operate it more slowly and "tear" the metal open. But the safest tools are like a giant can-opener for use on things like oil drums. Angle grinder... I can't imagine sparks not happening.
Yup!! We had a neighbor with a propane fueled electric generator. He wanted to get it running so that he could use it on his boat. Soooo, Dad helped him in his garage. They kept cranking the generator trying to get it going.
Right, they were accumulating propane on the floor of the garage!
Then they got the generator running and KABLOOEY!!! The garage burned to the ground. Dad and the neighbor both ended up in the burn ward of the hospital!!
Lesson: Be careful with propane!!
The good news: They didn't burn and sink his boat and have to swim.
Only tangentially related, but: Some years ago, there was a flurry of reports of "gas smell" in places around the English Channel, and gas works engineers all over south-eastern England and north-western France scurried about their networks looking for leaks, finding none. Eventually, the leak was found — in the factory that produces the smelling agent!
I learned that like 15 minutes too late during the Googling process of “Why do I smell so very bad after cutting open a propane tank with an angle grinder”.
I'm sorry but what compelled you to do that? Cutting into an empty propane tank with an angle grinder? You like being in close proximity to explosions or something?
I mean, it's just metal. As long as you make sure it is empty this is perfectly safe. Once a propane tank has reached the end of it's life as a propane tank it is completely reasonable to re-purpose them. You just have to be safe. Welders do this all the time. The scent they put in is actually somewhat flammable too. You take the valve out, leave it inverted, clean clean it out with soapy water, etc. It is a non-trivial process, but propane tanks are good steel.
Very misleading title, hanging by that ambiguous '«industry»'.
It's simple: use real truffles instead of "truffle" oils.
And, if proposed truffle oil (which'd seem honestly odd from the /real/ industry - you normally just slice the tuber on the host dish, there is no discarded part to obtain derivative products), you do as you are supposed to do for everything else: you trust a specific professional on founded grounds.
--
Edit:
> [producing truffle oil] seem[s] honestly odd from the /real/ industry - you normally just slice the tuber on the host dish, there is no discarded part to obtain derivative products
I could finally think of a reason: real truffles decay, while by making truffle oil you may extend the life of the good.
In fact, I think I saw (almost certainly real) truffle oil produced at least around Roddi (in the Langhe).
386 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 316 ms ] threadhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016489/storyville-th...
However there was a missed opportunity to end the film on the brilliantly directed scene of the gourmet eating the fried eggs with truffles. The perfect way to end a film about gathering truffles.
Is that really true? I’m not a truffle expert, but I’ve seen several suppliers offering flash frozen winter truffles.
https://blog.dibruno.com/2016/12/10/how-to-preserve-a-fresh-...
But perhaps the effect differs according to the kind of bread.
You still want a humidity controlled oven for reheating, so not necessarily super convenient at home.
A high-end baker I work with (https://triticum.net/) only sells frozen bread, everything comes with extensive instructions for reheating.
When I need to freeze bread, I don't bake the loaves fully first. I get them maybe 80% the way, then freeze. Then I can complete the bake after thawing.
I get reasonably decent results that way, although you can still tell.
Please do.
Tartufi di Fassia Tartufata with black truffles is made in Italy exclusively with organic black truffles and the natural aroma of black truffles. This tartufata comes without any artificial flavors and you can taste this unadulterated and delicious taste with every bite.
Shipping weight: 120 g per piece
Ingredients:
Mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), extra virgin olive oil, 6% summer truffle (Tuber Aestivum vitt), salt, parsley, black truffle flavored preparation* (extra virgin olive oil, black truffle flavorings), parsley, garlic*.
https://www.tasteatlas.com/truffle-industry-is-a-big-scam
That said, it's very ugly that this happens, I hope the EU will start protecting the term truffle.
But in this case it does, what's your point ?
(note that this is true for many artificial flavors, there's lots of esters often known as "pear" "banana" "strawberry" etc but as I'm sure you are aware artifical banana candy is a long long way from tasting like an actual banana.
More recently if I get something that says "truffle", it's this crazy almost garlic style punch (without the aftertaste of garlic). I've been confused why my experience of this changed so much from then to now… should have known I was being scammed!
Being older now, I see that the real value in the item or experience was being able to tell me about it. So many things fall into this category, if not completely, at least partially.
Truffles vary in taste and intensity, yet the price will easily be set on classes that ignore the quality of the single tuber. Some may taste horribly - it can happen - and yet be sold with a price following their class (not their individual merit).
I am afraid it is racist: all truffles of the same family are regarded the same by some, in spite of strong individual differences.
Before that I had the real thing and it was amazing. I'm not sure if I will ever try again because of the bad memory.
I sincerely doubt that any marketed truffle oil is based on petroleum. Perhaps the method of cooking influenced the taste?
It's explained right there in the wikipedia article you link to.
not great!
Now tell me, why would a petroleum product be used with it's foul smell, when olive oil, canola, and grapeseed oil are available?
More to the point, can anyone find a truffle oil where a petroleum product is listed in the ingredients?
They put the petroleum product into the other oils. Don't they?
The idea is: fake truffle oil is some olive/rapeseed oil with a bit of 2,4-dithiapentane added to it. I don’t know to what extent this flavouring is actually petroleum-derived, but the point is that it’s not actual truffle.
1. Put real truffles in some kind of oil (olive, canola, etc)
2. Put synthetic truffle flavor (commonly derived from petroleum) in oil
The point of this article is that most of what you buy and are served is #2 marketed as #1.
We do get some Tuber aestivum as well, but that's alright because they're displayed as "truffe d'été". No harm done.
As the article said, the "truffle flavour" has nothing to do with the real stuff, and outside of France, Italy and Spain, you probably won't get them on the market. You might be lucky in some restaurants all over Europe. But everywhere else it's propably not the "real" black truffle. Especially, if they put some in ketchup...
In Michelin star restaurants maybe. Else, you'd be surprised...
You'd stop working if the clientele saw you are not trustworthy.
Edit:
What you will see in the frontpage of the "Truffle Dogs University" in Roddi - http://www.universitadeicanidatartufo.it/prodotti.htm - is relevant: you will see the picture of a guy in front of the products. He "puts his face on it" - that is his reputation at implicit stake -, and he is proud. That is the normal standard. Also notice one important thing: «Available for /small/ shipments» - the goods are in limited quantity (fake ones could be produced ad libitum).
(Edit: no it's not, it's indicum, see below. In the OP, the former is described as very mild but somewhat prized; the latter as tasteless, cheap, used for appearance (& perhaps in combination with synthetic flavouring) only.)
I suspect that the Chinese truffles are T. indicum or perhaps T. himalayense [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuber_aestivum
[2] https://www.trufamania.com/Tuber%20indicum%20English.htm
> There is also the notorious tuber indicum, the Chinese black truffle, which has flooded the European and American market. It has no taste or smell, and its price starts at less than ten euros per kilo. Visually, it does not differ much from the black winter truffle, and it will often be falsely presented as such, although the flavor and the aroma do not resemble in any way.
> This truffle also has a derogatory nickname: potatoes - because the price and taste do not differ much from those of potatoes. If you get a truffle with a dark core during summer, it is also a scam.
I Googled about pine nuts. Here is what Wiki says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut
Right there: The term "pine nut" is generic. Probably, the "Italian" ones that you like are a particular species. Are you really sure they are Italian, or actually grown in a neighboring country, then through the magic of "last step processing" imported and repackaged as "Italian"? Italy is famous for it in international trade. And, the "Chinese" ones (it is a massive country after all -- same size as EU?) are a different species -- perhaps less tasty. My guess: Pine nuts are very labor intensive. As a result, imported pine nuts from developing countries are much cheaper than those from developed Italy.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_koraiensis
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_armandii
Pine nuts from the stone pine are really expensive. Although, in this case, it's rather easy to notice the difference.
In my experience in Italy, I would say you usually get real truffle outside of scammy tourist places, but it is generally unspecified on the menu. AKA, you are getting the cheap one rather than the expensive one, unless the menu says the opposite.
[0] https://www.comptoir-correzien.fr/en/home/
As if just breading and killing animals is not sick enough, there's foie gras.
Finally it's being banned in more and more countries.
https://animalequality.org/blog/2022/02/08/what-is-foie-gras...
I find it bizarre that here on HN someone advertises it, albeit in parenthesis...
But your general description of meat production is a bit too simplistic. The main issue with it, for me, is not the very act of taking a life for food. It's about what comes before it. The life the animals have in captivity. There are differences of course, but generally lifestock is held in too little space, too high stocking density, inappropriate bedding, flooring and treatment in case of diseases. It's a matter of cost. One can provide conditions where lifestock is suffering much less, having a good life even, but that means much more cost per pound meat sold. In addition, beginning of life (insemination which can be "natural" or artificial or some kind of in-between rape kind) and end (different ways of taking the life, some gas suffocating the animal causing terrible pain, or bolt-into-brain or) can also provide or prevent different levels of suffering. Again it's a matter of cost.
I personally do eat meat. Not everyday but most days. I do try to ensure that the farmer provided the animals with a good life, as I know most of them personally. Or it's a wild animal, running through the forest until the last moments. Not practical for everybody, and pretty pricey, but avoids the worst.
As you see, suffering is key here. The mere act of taking a life is "natural". (A bolt through the brain is quick and less painful than the long hunt by a pack of wolves or a lion.) It's still a kill, but that's the balance I'm striking personally.
That said, let's consider dairy. Cows have their babies taken from them right after birth, which entails days of audible suffering from the mums (they cry for days). This happens 4-5 times in their live. The baby is fed formula, the moms milk is taken and sold for profit. That's the suffering you mentioned. That's impossible to avoid when producing dairy at scale.
That's why I'm vegan.
But it's far from impossible to avoid. There are farms that keep calves with their moms for the first months and this is an active topic of academic research in animal welfare groups around the world, mostly in Europe. There are some drawbacks, like obviously the calf drinks some of the milk that otherwise could be sold, but there are advantages too, like calves growing faster and having better health which could compensate for these effects, but again, this is still being researched.
So, it's not even clear that it's economically better to separate cow and calf right after birth (dairy industry is quite conservative and slow to adopt change.) But even if there is an economic hit, it's not so big and consumers who care could just pay more. It could eventually be included in regulations for dairy farming, and until then, people who care (like you and me) can voluntarily buy milk from farms that practice keeping them together. Apart from being better for the animals, it also shows farmers and regulators that people care and this can work.
I respect you going vegan, but for this particular problem there are solutions and it seems like there are worse things that we do to animals.
Sounds like a new process to make fried chicken.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/01/487088946/th...
That's how we used to talk about different types of humans in the not so distant past.
That your empathy has fixed limits does not mean society does not move fwd. Thank God.
Personally it would be killing, breading, and eating.
It's also the reason I expect Tuna's days are numbered.
Similar to why people might knowingly buy knock-off "designer" items.
It’s tasty when grated over a pasta dish?
I'm sorry and I'm not picking on you or trying to be smart, but this doesn't make sense: anything you buy for $5 in a supermarket is neither rare nor luxurious, by definition. Why do people fall for this.
I didn’t realize that truffle oil doesn’t come from truffles, so TIL as well. I don’t really like the flavor anyways but it is certainly unique.
Think about Starbucks. You don't need a $7 coffee drink, but its sweet and tasty, maybe you like the homey atmosphere and fake friendliness from the staff, maybe you like using the fancy names, maybe you like being seen with your Starbucks cup, all because you too can afford a luxury lifestyle. Its all marketing to sell you overpriced coffee and milk.
I much prefer the abundance of smaller privately owned shops you tend to find in Europe over the factory made franchise options you see all over the US. Most Americans seem to have no idea.
The truffle flavor is no different from the fake "college t-shirts"[1] that big pseudo-american chains like NewYorker[2] sell all over the Europe.
[1] https://www.newyorker.de/products/#/detail/05.03.105.0679/00...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorker_(clothing)
Oh phooey. Ferraris are Italian.
When it's sitting next to a $0.89 box of Kraft macaroni, the $5.00 box definitely feels like a luxury.
Nor is buying a Lexus (by Ferrari's standards) since its essentially just a Toyota with a nicer interior and more gadgets.
People are dumb.
This is exactly my point. Lexus is sold as a "luxury" car.
> A Mercedes is also essentially a Toyota with nicer interior and more gadgets - if you want to put it that way.
You missed the point - which is Toyota and Lexus share the same owner and are literally the same platform of a car: https://www.quora.com/Which-Toyota-model-is-the-same-as-a-Le...
Lexus (レクサス, Rekusasu) is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota.[0]
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus
These things may seem commonplace locally, but to people on the other side of the country these "cheap" things can be a rare luxury.
I have truffle oil and truffle honey around the house. They’re useful ingredients.
I’m not sure what’s in truffle honey but it’s AMAZING with Camembert and other similar very soft cheeses so there’s that.
That started to change in the 1970s and 80s but that still tended to be focused on specific ingredients (which have producers advertising them heavily) with the same expectation that they’re available year round everywhere. There were whole campaigns promoting things like Angus beef as a premium ingredient rather than the more easily produced but less flavorful breed it actually is.
Truffle derivatives fit well into that: toss some “truffle salt” or oil onto the same hamburger or French fries you were serving last week and it’s now $10 more expensive. The truffle products don’t need to be local or in season, so anyone can do that. Plus since the flavor change is quite modest most of your customers will consider buying it.
Wow, because the Brits are not exactly known for their haute cuisine.
Speaking as an American who lived in France for several years in many different cities both metropolitan et d'outre-mer, from Paris to Entre-Deux and everywhere in-between, I can tell you that a lot of how French people feel about food in their own country stems largely from aspect blindness, and a lot of how Americans feel about food in France stems largely from never actually living there. France has the same flavors and foods available as everywhere else in roughly the same proportion if you spend the time looking.
There are differences of course. The US has many more different varieties of every kind of produce. In Paris you find "an apple" or "a lettuce", while in the US you have to choose between 10 different varieties side-by-side. On the flip side, France has many more varieties of pureed pork generally available.
For some time now I have been wondering why the little pieces of truffle were tasteless when the dishe as a whole smelled so strong.
Now I know.
This morning I had an expensive artisan craft coffee. I've never been able to taste the difference, so I'm not going to act like it was something extraordinary. Atmosphere was nice though.
Sadly most of the coffee shops don't even try to achieve these two things.
The article does say that, but makes the (valid) point that it's not okay to sell it pretending that it's "the real stuff" with a corresponding price tag.
What I'm curious about is that the author seems to suggest these artificial flavouring are unhealthy ("causing long-term damage to [...] your stomach and palate") but doesn't say why.
They analyze the real thing for what makes it smell or taste like it does. Then they take one or a few major molecules that make up the taste and that are easy to derive cheaply from something else and use it for flavoring stuff. The real thing probably had a hundred different things make up its smell and taste.
Bonus points if it can be derived from something that allows them to label it as "natural". Lots of natural flavor is produced by molds/funghi actually that have been modified to produce the molecules needed. Example: https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/Edible-fungus-yields-n...
Case in point I just recently read here on HN I believe that banana flavored stuff still tastes like the old bananas that we can no longer buy because that variety is no longer possible to grow. The molecules they extracted from that aren't in the bananas variety we can currently buy.
Anecdote: we did this in our high school chemistry class w/ pineapple flavour, i.e. we created artificial pineapple flavouring right there in class. It was very strong and not as complex as a real pineapple, but identifiable.
that would be the Gros Michel. It is a common misconception that it no longer exists, but you can you actually still buy it (and grow it), you will find many results in google. It's just been replaced in the mass market.
So I should have written: that you can no longer buy in the supermarket down the street :)
It’s one of my life’s entertaining side-missions to try as many types as possible, ever since I found out that “the (cavendish) banana” is not the end of the story.
I’ve ticked off Cavendish (of course), dwarf cavendish, lady finger, apple banana, Pisang Awak, red Dacca, Fe’i and various plantains so far. Many more to go!
I certainly would laugh if I went into a restaurant and on top of my 'truffle-infused' Lamb Ragù was a gently placed Truffle Jellybean.
Personally I think like you, if the product tastes good and the atmosphere is fine for the advertised price I'm 100% satisfied.
If the restaurant manages to achieve that with cheaper ingredients (while maintaining hygiene and not outright lying) I consider that a good business practice.
But what is constitutes outright lying? Some would assume that the word "truffles" on its own means the genuine article. Others would say they are telling the truth if they state that it is not the real thing in the small print. It wouldn't surprise me if someone tried to trademark Real Truffles for their substitute. All would claim that they are telling the truth, never mind deny they are not outright lying. Technically, they are correct.
Deception is not a good business practice, even in the slightest. It is the sign of someone who is solely interested in short term gain, rather than establishing a lasting institution.
First people should not be lied to by restaurants and the food industry, and prices should not be jacked up selling crap as premium...
Then they can decide freely if they like gasoline-derived oil for what it is itself...
How does that make things hard to regulate?
Now, catching people selling a cheaper truffle as a more expensive truffle may require more educated customers.
Years ago, I bought some very pungent blue cheese, must have been either from SW France or NE Spain. Definitely not a household name, and priced quite high. One of the worst eating experiences I can remember. The flavour was so strong a small crumb was enough to burn your tastebuds. Almost painful to eat, and we had to toss the thing out.
It smelled really good, though. I learned my lesson. These days I refuse to buy any unfamiliar cheese I can't sample in the shop first.
If you see a fine wine with 'hint of boxwood', run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoqlYGuZGVM
If we go to another country with good wines, we ask the waiter and it works out better than looking at the wine menu and making assumptions. One waiter in Sicily even suggested that he chose the wine for us and we were very satisfied with his choice after we also tried to get the same wine ourselves and ordered something different.
Also, Moldova used to export crappy sweet wine before their agricultural products were banned in Russia. Now it exports mainly into the EU and they have some good quality wines if you skip the ones made from hybrid grape varieties, which I wonder why I've even found on the EU market. Must be the new 2021 regulation allowing hybrid varieties in wines with protected denominations of origin. Apart from the usual varieties, they also produce wines with a Georgian variety called Saperavi, which I like quite a lot and also a local older variety called Rara Neagra which is popular but I don't like because it's acidic, however it can be sucessfully used in blends where one needs more acidity.
It reminds me that in the USA there are rules for what constitutes a bourbon whiskey. You can make and enjoy other types of whiskey, just don't call them Bourbon.
There's also Jack Daniel's, from what I remember they actually pass the requirements to be a Bourbon, but the company chooses not to label it that way. That's also fine!
What wouldn't be fine is a whiskey calling itself rum or vodka, because when I buy one I don't expect to get the other.
I would caveat that with: First people should ALL work in the hospitality and service Industry.
You will be shocked if you think this is the most egregious thing you will find in the culinary Industry.
Honestly, after what the Industry like since COVID, I hope it collapses and people just start to eat healthier at home, in the US the Industry has been consolidated by Corpos who could get millions in PPP and didn't have to pay it back and low interest rates to win a battle of attrition against the smaller spots who relied on word to muth and higher QC/QA to justify those high prices that the public feel entitled to complain about despite not knowing the mechanics of getting a kitchen to function let alone turn a profit.
It's sad... I really thought prior to COVID we were making serious inroads in educating the American population to something that most in Asia and Europe is pretty normalized: food culture.
As a cook that has worked in and ran kitchens in both Europe and N. America the fact that most people think that what is in those atrocious bottles (truffle oil) resembles anything like a black truffle underscores what I mean.
Most people in the US freak out when they see a vein in their shrimp let alone a head, whereas when you're in Spain the best part of a tapas bar is when the numbers are thin and the patrons still drinking get the good stuff like 'gambas' and you can suck the heads after having been served countless olives, patatas bravas or various bread with stuff plates with your drinks.
Personally speaking, I don't really think black truffles are that great and I've worked with quite a lot of them over the years, it mainly benefits a lot from it's marketing more than it's actual flavour.
The perfume it gives does enhance a dish, which makes it good to garnish as a table service option, but the taste is rather unremarkable to me, at best it's like having good biodynamicly grown garlic. White truffles are far more aromatic, and just keeping them in rice is enough to brighten up a rissoto, but also suffers from the 'too Earthy' category for most people's palettes unless they are trying to impress people who gravitate towards high end ingredients or are actually coming for that as the highlight of their meals while it's in season, which is an incredibly small percentage of patrons.
With all these foods the real thing is better, but the substitute is also fine.
Never liked it, but now I like it less. And I like fenugreek.
Imitation vanilla is labeled imitation vanilla. Not a secret that it's not made from actual vanilla.
I'm surprised honey hasn't come up here more. The majority of honey in the US contains very little actual honey, but the ingredients list just says "pure filtered honey". If you've ever had real honey, it's night and day. If you want a cheaper honey substitute, that's fine. If a company is labeling a cheaper honey substitute as "pure filtered honey", that's not fine.
That said, you should be able to _easily_ distinguish different varieties of honey or even different sources of honey by tasting it. If you can’t then it’s likely a big commodity blend.
Go do a blind from a producer that lists the hive locations for the honey. It’s probably the product that has the most obvious “terroir” effect that I know of. I can tell the difference between honey from hives that are less than 2 miles apart (Woodlawn vs Englewood in Chicago).
A lot of honey is imported from places where it has been mixed with other sugars or adulterated in other ways. The bottlers either don't know or don't care because the price is lower and the profit margin is higher.
The labeling laws are being broken by a number of big producers. The adulterated honey is generally safe, but is not pure honey.
Restaurants being dishonest are maybe problem for honest ones next-door, but if the customer is happy I see no harm done.
According to Wikipedia, it's at least believed by some researchers that French fries originated in France.
Unless you mean "these specific fries don't come from France, any more than these specific fries contain truffles".
Would be accurate and descriptive and makes them distinct from fries with actual truffle.
Gives you the same differentiation as whipped cream vs edible oil
Truffle oil is kinda like that artificial grape flavor. It's clearly not the real thing if you've tasted both. But if you're honest, that fake grape in a Fanta or whatever is tasty in its own way.
Similarly there's a burger joint near me that does truffle oil fries with the synthetic flavor. They aren't priced like it's some luxury thing either, they're just the standard fries at the price you'd expect. They're tasty. I don't see the point of being all huffy about it.
I do like to think that sim-flavors will eventually get their own seat at the taste at the table but there is still correlation between interest in the prototype taste and the sims.
However I do like organic raspberry for example, synth raspberry is meh.
Even in grocery stores you can't be sure what kind of fish you buy.
https://www.grocerydive.com/news/restaurants-grocery-stores-...
This is meaningless.
If I buy a product that claims to contain X ingredient, the manufacturer has a moral, ethical, and legal responsibility to give me that ingredient.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerotium
Also, they are absolutely disgusting. Find someone who will sell you the shrooms instead :)
I believe culinary truffles are more the-thing-itself, rather than a secondary supporting structure such as sclerotium.
The trick to hassle free tripping:
In the morning have something very small. A short coffee and a pastry. Don't eat for 4-5 hours - non-negotiable. Eat your shrooms with a very small amount of water and maybe one or two crisps (or chips if you're from the US.)
Go sit down and relax :)
You will, with 95% certainty, feel absolutely fine.
Having food in your stomach triggers a need to expel it. Truffles are also rough on your stomach, but that's their nature, not the good stuff.
> Truffles are also rough on your stomach
This is my experience. And apparently your experience too although you took it as an opportunity to lecture.
What a rude way to catagorise the help. Consider this a lecture - relax yourself.
It also doesn't even seem to be your experience, or you wouldn't have asked. Very strange. Good luck.
It's not about being fungi, I love other mushrooms.
I love coriander. I just know some people say "soap" and wrinkle their noses. Well.. truffle does that to me, and I've had chunks of it the size of nuts in France in the early 70s, I know it wasn't some factory extract (it was the mayors birthday and we lucked into it with a local)
I spit it out over board and complained it must be full of dishing soap ...
I've read that there is a compound in cilantro that we can taste that is untastable to other people. I've noticed that finally chopped and/or cooked cilantro is not anywhere near as strong. So it must be some volatile chemical. Once I was able to clearly identify the taste, I started noticing other tastes in raw vegetables that went away after fine-chopping and cooking. For the most part, I find raw vegetables almost inedible, especially things like bell peppers. But cooked up, they are completely fine.
I also noticed that, if I try to push through eating many raw vegetables, I start to have an allergic reaction on my tongue. This is especially true for cilantro, basil, celery, and to a lesser extent carrots and tomatoes. Again, cooked is no problem.
I'm my mind, they're all linked. Some uniqueness of my tongue genetics makes me susceptible to one or more certain chemicals that others can tolerate. And my tongue is trying to tell me it's bad for me.
Ah, here it is - https://www.npr.org/2008/12/26/98695984/getting-to-the-root-...
Ye exactly. Like licking a raw parsnip on the outside.
You mean eliciting?
It is a good philosophical question, if in a 10,000 years people would still link the strawberry flavour with an actual strawberry, especially if advertising companies slowly tweak the image of a strawberry to look more appetising.
I remember even as a child saying I like the flavour of strawberries, but I don't like strawberry-flavoured things. I'd eat the fruit, but not the ice-cream.
And I don't agree that even vanilla extract from pods tastes like vanilla pods. I don't know a way to get the flavour of pods without using pods.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipteryx_odorata
Are you sure you're not thinking of vanilla "essence", which is mostly synthetic vanillin?
I can definitely taste the difference between essence and extract. Essence is much simpler, while extract has another hundred vanilla compounds in it.
You are likely to get much better deals if you can buy locally in a truffle growing region.
Please don't do this, that would be obnoxious. Treat waiters with some level of respect.
You put the slices on top: they are not dishes with preliminary preparation (which imply mixing the ingredients). It is just normal to do it in presence - and definitely sensible.
They want people to know they're served real truffles, because that's what weeds out competitors cheating on products.
https://truffleindustry.com.au/faq/
No, it is "know what you eat". "Know what you put inside you"
A couple years ago I had my first “truffle” experience with some truffle cheese and was like cutting back into that propane tank. Not the same in scale, but certainly in type. Tremendously similar smells. Since then I’ve been sad and thought I just managed to ruin truffles for myself. This article has given me hope.
https://thermalprocessing.com/metal-urgency-determining-aust...
Right, they were accumulating propane on the floor of the garage!
Then they got the generator running and KABLOOEY!!! The garage burned to the ground. Dad and the neighbor both ended up in the burn ward of the hospital!!
Lesson: Be careful with propane!!
The good news: They didn't burn and sink his boat and have to swim.
Alice: I'm telling you, there is gas everywhere! This place is about to blow!
Bob: I have been up and down the block three times, and the sniffer is not picking up a thing.
It's simple: use real truffles instead of "truffle" oils.
And, if proposed truffle oil (which'd seem honestly odd from the /real/ industry - you normally just slice the tuber on the host dish, there is no discarded part to obtain derivative products), you do as you are supposed to do for everything else: you trust a specific professional on founded grounds.
--
Edit:
> [producing truffle oil] seem[s] honestly odd from the /real/ industry - you normally just slice the tuber on the host dish, there is no discarded part to obtain derivative products
I could finally think of a reason: real truffles decay, while by making truffle oil you may extend the life of the good.
In fact, I think I saw (almost certainly real) truffle oil produced at least around Roddi (in the Langhe).