# What do you use truffle salt on?



## Dawgluver (Aug 5, 2013)

I've never had it, sounds nice.  Maybe some grilled or roasted vegetables, a nice piece of beef, rice?


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## naphthalene (Aug 5, 2013)

Dawgluver said:


> I've never had it, sounds nice.  Maybe some grilled or roasted vegetables, a nice piece of beef, rice?




Get some. $15 for 3.5 ounces on amazon. I've used it a lot over the past half year and it's still almost half full.


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## Zhizara (Aug 5, 2013)

I don't eat a lot of salt.  Is there a good truffle oil?  Where's the best place to get some.  How do you use it?


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## naphthalene (Aug 5, 2013)

Zhizara said:


> I don't eat a lot of salt.  Is there a good truffle oil?  Where's the best place to get some.  How do you use it?




If you really don't want salt, I'd get truffle butter. "truffle" oil is one chemical mixed with olive oil. It shouldn't cost much if at all more than olive oil but it's way overpriced in reality. And it just doesn't match the flavor of real truffle products. 

That, or you can always get a few ounces of truffle and use shavings on your food. 

I'd try it first on something that doesn't have a lot of flavor itself. Herbs and spices just ruin it sometimes. So far I've mostly used it on my morning hash browns and like I said pasta + butter.


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## Zhizara (Aug 5, 2013)

Thanks for your reply, Napthalene.  Is it real butter?  I'm trying to cut down on animal fat>


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## naphthalene (Aug 5, 2013)

Zhizara said:


> Thanks for your reply, Napthalene.  Is it real butter?  I'm trying to cut down on animal fat>



Unless you just get plain truffle and use it as I suggested up there, the only multi use products that I would ever put on my food would be truffle salt and truffle butter. Truffle butter is real butter. 

That said, if you can find truffle oil cheap, it's not a terrible thing. It just doesn't have the depth of flavor that real truffle products do.

Lol oops I just reported my own post. Sorry mods.


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## Zhizara (Aug 5, 2013)

I figured truffle butter was with real butter, but you use very little, if I'm correct, so I don't think it would very harmful. 

Other members have mentioned that it's really good in eggs.


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## jennyema (Aug 5, 2013)

I use truffle salt mostly on eggs and salad.


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## MysteryMunchies (Aug 5, 2013)

I'm always a bit wary of using truffle salt because I like to have lots and lots and lots of truffle flavour, and if I use truffle salt exclusively for adding the truffle flavour, it becomes too easy for me to oversalt my food.

I agree about the truffle oil not being a good way to get the true truffle flavour.

I find it can be logistically difficult to use fresh truffles because fresh truffles don't keep very well. Even if you vacuum pack them fresh and put them into the fridge, you must use them within 1 week. If you buy them already vacuum packed, you cannot smell them nor will you know how long they have already been in that vacuum pack for. Truffles don't freeze well by themselves, as when you defrost them, they turn to mush and become rather useless. So, if you were planning a meal on a certain day when you will be serving truffles, then it would require some forward planning so that you can time your truffle buying at just the right time. And there are no guarantees that on the day you go to buy your fresh truffles, that your supplier actually has any in stock.

This is why I find truffle butter to be my favourite way of using truffles. It is so easy to make your own truffle butter from fresh truffles. It is just a compound butter just like parsley butter. Just finely chop the fresh truffles and mix it through the slightly softened butter. I like to use unsalted butter so that I can adjust the salt content of the food just right. Then you can divide them into blocks of the size that suits you and put them into the freezer for months and months on end, ready for use whenever you feel the inspiration to add truffles!

An easy way to eat truffles for the first time, to see if it is a flavour that you like and to come to understand what it tastes like so you know how to use it in your own future cooking, is to just cook some spaghetti in salted water, drain the spaghetti and place the hot spaghetti onto a piece of truffle butter to melt it (without heating the truffle butter too much so that the butter separates).

Enjoy!


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## Zhizara (Aug 5, 2013)

Is truffle butter available easily online?  Who has the best price?, reliable?


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## naphthalene (Aug 5, 2013)

Zhizara said:


> Is truffle butter available easily online?  Who has the best price?, reliable?



I've never bought it online. http://earthy.com/ is a legitimate website for all your fungal needs though. Reasonably priced at that.


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## Zhizara (Aug 5, 2013)

Thanks, Knapth!  I'll just google it.  It's something I've wanted for a long to try.  

Thanks for the inspiration.  I'll post when I try it and give my opinion.

Signing off now,  Good Night!


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## MysteryMunchies (Aug 5, 2013)

While we are on the subject of truffles, I'd like to caution everyone to please smell the truffles before purchasing. This is because a fake product called the Chinese Truffle, which is a completely different species of underground fungus (but still from the _Tuber_ genus) to the real, highly prized Black Truffle (originally from France) have made it into the marketplace. This Chinese Truffle looks exactly like the French Black Truffle, but has zero of the real truffle's aromas and tastes. Chinese peasants wouldn't even eat the Chinese Truffles - they'd just feed the Chinese Truffles to their pigs! But, since China has opened up to the West, unscrupulous people have been paying good money to these Chinese peasants, who found it ridiculous that they were being paid good money for this rubbish. But what happened was that these people were mixing this useless Chinese Truffle in with the real French Black Truffle, especially in products where the truffle is already chopped (eg, in pates and terrines, with canned foie gras, etc) and, selling these products at high Black Truffle prices and passing the Chinese Truffle off as the real deal. There was even news from a couple of years ago, that even the local town markets in Perigord (France) where fresh, whole truffles are sold, have been infiltrated by the Chinese Truffle, and the reputable truffle town markets now have inspectors sniffing through every single truffle in the marketplace (while the truffle price is being set) before any truffles are allowed to be sold.


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## naphthalene (Aug 5, 2013)

I won't quote the wall of text above, but thanks for the info.


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## Steve Kroll (Aug 5, 2013)

I like truffle salt and, unlike the oil, it actually contains real truffles. I use it on scrambled eggs, asparagus, and mac & cheese.


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## Dawgluver (Aug 5, 2013)

MM, I saw a news article about this too,  sad.


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## Kylie1969 (Aug 6, 2013)

I have never seen truffle salt over here


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## MysteryMunchies (Aug 6, 2013)

Kylie1969 said:


> I have never seen truffle salt over here


 
In Sydney, I've seen the Tetsuya's brand of Truffle Salt at David Jones Food Hall and other places. The Essential Ingredient sells its own brand of Truffle Salt. The Wine and Truffle Co also has its own brand of Truffle Salt.


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## Kylie1969 (Aug 6, 2013)

MM, that is great that you can get it over in Sydney...maybe they do sell it here in Adelaide, I would just have to search hard for it


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## JoieMichelle (Aug 12, 2013)

Tater Tots! It sounds low rent but Oh Boy is it good!


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## KatyCooks (Aug 13, 2013)

I have yet to experience the heady joy of truffles.  

A couple of years ago, I got a couple of whole black truffles in oil (from a very reputable company and sold by a very reputable outlet) which cost a fortune.    Sadly the taste was negligible.   They didn't taste bad - they literally didn't taste of anything at all.  Having read about the Chinese truffles, I wonder now if one or both companies were duped.    In which case, so was I.  

I'm still curious to taste a fresh one though.


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## taxlady (Aug 14, 2013)

JoieMichelle said:


> Tater Tots! It sounds low rent but Oh Boy is it good!


"Low rent", what a great expression! I love the idea of "low rent" with snooty truffle salt.


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## MysteryMunchies (Aug 15, 2013)

We had a family gathering tonight where I served my Truffled Cassoulet Pie. Soaked some dried white beans for 24 hours. Browned some beef cheeks, root vegetables and herbs and then slow-cooked the beef cheeks to make a beef stock. Then kept the beef cheeks separately and used the beef stock to cook the soaked white beans in the pressure cooker. Then stirred roasted garlic puree and truffle butter through the white bean stew. Then roasted some duck breasts and fried some herb and garlic sausages. Also grilled some mushrooms, sprinkled with herbs. Then chopped the beef cheeks, the duck breasts, the sausages and the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and mixed everything together with the white bean stew in an oven-proof deep pie dish. Then sliced some fresh truffles and added them onto the top of the pie. Then made some truffled herb shortcrust pastry (by rubbing truffle butter and herbs with some flour) and placed a layer on top of the pie to bake until the crust is golden brown and crispy. Then broke the crust into pieces and and stirred the crusty pieces into the stew. Then placed a new layer of truffled herb shortcrust pastry on top of the pie and baked again until golden brown to serve.


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## Kylie1969 (Aug 16, 2013)

Sounds very nice MM


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## Greg Who Cooks (Aug 16, 2013)

I recently bought some truffle salt and haven't had the occasion to use it yet. Some time back I got some truffle oil and used it a few times in salad dressings. (You do not cook with truffle oil!)


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