Leucangium carthusianum
Yesterday at the Hollywood Farmers Market I bought some very ripe Oregon black truffles. Last year truffles were going for $20 – $40 per ounce at the farmers markets, a really crazy price. This year, possibly due to the economy, though I hope not, the truffle sellers have lowered their prices to something reasonable. Bittersweet farms was selling them for $8 an ounce, and the mushroom stand at the Hollywood market had them for $7 an ounce, or as the guy said, ‘a quarter a gram’. For that price the amount of truffle on my omelette was $3. The other thing that turns people off at these high prices is that they expect the concentration of flavor that they’ve tasted in ‘truffle infused oil’, not realizing that this is a totally synthetic product, akin to a Dorito. Compared to the oils the actual truffle has a fairly low key flavor. It’s also difficult to find ripe truffles as the truffle purveyors have been digging them up willy nilly whenever they can find them, regardless of ripeness. It’s necessary to smell each individual truffle to test.
May 24th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I bought some of these from bittersweet a while ago and was pretty disappointed. I tried them shaved, and in a recipe, and ultimately decided that they just weren’t worth the sticker price. . . better off with a good ol’ fashioned morel.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Yes, 95% of the local truffles are unripe and thus tasteless. It’s a very disappointing situation.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
What’s wrong with doritoes??
June 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Not saying there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just an example of a flavor veering away from nature.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
is that the plural of dorito? just kidding btw