The truffle industry is a big scam. Not just truffle oil, everything
52 points by fanf2 11 hours ago | 22 comments
  • Timon3 10 hours ago |
    Hm... I get the point they are making, but on the other hand I had a pizza with truffle at a pizzeria that according to the article was likely synthetic... But I really liked it. The labelling should definitely be clear and transparent, no question! However, there can probably be space for both, since I don't think my experience would be better without synthetic flavoring while also staying in a comparable price range.
    • epolanski 9 hours ago |
      One year ago I was in an Italian region famous for truffles in truffle season and went to a high level restaurant that specialized in truffles and meat.

      After tasting different varieties I concluded I liked fake truffle taste more.

      A lot more.

      A simple spaghetti dish with real truffles tasted okay, but not as good as the one with fake truffle oil.

      • proprietario 8 hours ago |
        Oh very interesting, as for me it is the complete opposite: I grew up only knowing real truffle and am now in a position where the fake stuff is just too intense for me, which is kinda sad as some "higher class" restaurants happily combine the two, to get you the look (eg by grating in front of you) and the taste (via some oil in the sauce)

        I'd be very grateful if they started labelling it accordingly as they do it with other synthetic flavours (eg strawberry, GER)

      • Legend2440 8 hours ago |
        Reminds me of how many people prefer artificial vanilla to the genuine thing in blind taste tests.
        • epolanski 7 hours ago |
          Yeah vanilla was the second example I could think of.
      • Ductapemaster 7 hours ago |
        That's really interesting. For me, I very much do NOT enjoy the taste of truffles in restaurant dishes because it's often so overbearing. I just don't find the flavor interesting, and it's very singular.

        Perhaps I would enjoy the "real" experience more...

        • genocidicbunny 5 hours ago |
          A lot of restaurants also just overdo how much they add in an attempt to make it seem like they put a lot of truffles into the dish and so there's a strong aroma from the dish. Whenever I use it, in something like my attempts at a mushroom truffle risotto, I will usually use a drop or two for a whole pan. Maybe a little more if I plan to cook the dish for a while after, such as if I am making a sauce that will simmer for a bit. Usually even a teaspoon is too much.
      • trufflewhore99 2 hours ago |
        Oh man, you totally beat me to it!

        I was so excited to make up some fake story about how I went to Italy and had real truffles on pasta. My story was almost identical to yours: coming out in favor of truffle oil!

  • zexbha 8 hours ago |
    In my past life, I was a chef. I owned a restaurant in Ireland. I only purchased the cheapest Chinese truffles money could buy. Why? People only want to taste the oil anyway. I've worked with high end white truffles and the flavor is very vague. I'd estimate that I've eaten several hundred grams of white truffle.
    • Melting_Harps 4 hours ago |
      > In my past life, I was a chef. I owned a restaurant in Ireland. I only purchased the cheapest Chinese truffles money could buy. Why? People only want to taste the oil anyway. I've worked with high end white truffles and the flavor is very vague. I'd estimate that I've eaten several hundred grams of white truffle.

      Doesnt that have a lot to do with region? I ask because I worked all over Europe and N. America during my chef days and I can definitely tell you that my stint in Croatia made me realize that truffles are not that highly regarded--I saw black ones thinly sliced on slices of $1.50 pizza slices at the bakery during the heavy season--when they are plentiful, and the oil was entirely non-existant. What wasn't used was canned and labeled a delicacy next to the little spreadable ham things that sold for like 80 cents back then.

      While when I was in Italy you rarely saw them on menus outside of 100+ euro a menu places and typically only in season--I worked in mainly farm to tables is in the Emilia Romanga area so we got lots of parama ingredients all year round but truffles were a special occasion kind of affair that was limited to maybe 3 weeks or a so a year.

      In London I just took it for granted that this was a marketing ploy to get the people in the city to justify the wildly expensive outings a reservation/menu cost, and in Cornwall they didn't even care about them at all. Germany, and Switzerland were pretty much the same.

      I didn't have truffle oil until I got back to the US, and it was used for innocuous things like fries in a steak frites entree.

  • gregoriol 7 hours ago |
    So that's why we get so many stuff with truffle these days, when very few existed 10 years ago and were not cheap
  • stonethrowaway 7 hours ago |
    If you think news is fake, imagine history.
  • bandyaboot 7 hours ago |
    > Some will compare the difference between the natural flavor of truffles and the artificial truffle flavor with the difference between sex and sniffing dirty panties.
  • ihuman 7 hours ago |
    When they say that fake truffle oil has a "intense gas-like aroma," do they mean that literally? Truffle oil doesn't smell/taste like gasoline to me at all
    • viciousvoxel 5 hours ago |
      It's not exactly like gas, but it's not not like gas... there's something distinctly petrochemical-like about it and also garlicky, which makes sense since dithiapentane and allicin (the primary component of garlic aroma) are both organosulfur compounds.
      • genocidicbunny 5 hours ago |
        The petrochemical-like aroma is probably due to the sulfur in the dithiapentane.

        I've noticed that if used at room-ish temperature, most decent truffle oils don't have a strong sulfur-based smell, but if cooked, say on a pizza or a french fry where the temperature gets relatively high, I think some of the dithiapentane might degrade into stuff that's more more reminiscent of petroleum products.

    • Angostura 5 hours ago |
      I wonder if they are talking about the smell added to natural gas, rather than talking about the smell of gasoline
      • BenjiWiebe 5 hours ago |
        That's my thought as well.
  • viciousvoxel 5 hours ago |
    Another way to tell if you're being had, I believe only white truffle actually contains dithiapentane or the flavor it mimics. So, if you're eating black truffles and it has that strong, distinctive "truffle oil" gas-garlic flavor, it's definitely added flavoring. The real thing is quite mild but definitely noticeable, especially the white variety. I'm one of those people that can't stand the fake flavoring. Luckily I'm currently living in an Italian truffle region and can get the real thing. As the article suggests, the best way to use real truffle is with a mild dish that can carry but not overwhelm the flavor, e.g. tajarin al tartufo (which I think was actually one of the images in the article).
  • yumraj 4 hours ago |
    Have never had truffle. Is it universally liked or is it an acquired taste?

    Got truffle oil, with black truffle, from Costco. It was one of the most vile thing I’ve ever tasted.

    Either I don’t have the genes to like truffle or it was some fake shit.

    • podure 3 hours ago |
      Imagine you buy a jar of vanilla extract without ever having had vanilla before…and try a spoonful.

      You would absolutely hate it. Yet, vanilla is fairly universally liked by people everywhere…

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