Puzzle of prized white truffle finally yields to science | Hacker News Reader

Puzzle of prized white truffle finally yields to science

theguardian.com

95 pointsnigerian198145 comments

If you’d like to see what truffle hunting is like, I can’t recommend “The Truffle Hunters” a 2020 documentary enough. It’s beautifully shot and composed, it’s funny and sad and heart warming, and shows the life of 70-80 year old truffle hunters and their dogs in a way I never knew about or understood.

After seeing the film, I don’t think cultivating these truffles will be a bad thing for everyone involved.

This is definitely my second favourite truffle documentary after 2021's Pig.

I haven't seen Pig, but I'll watch it, thanks!

Not: Pig is not a documentary; it’s a fictional drama starring Nic Cage.

Really?

It seemed reasonable to want a quiet retirement after a life spent as a famous chef, motorcycle stuntman, American archaeologist, screenwriter, WWII veteran, car thief, angel, felon, FBI agent and chemical weapons expert, infant kidnapper, Vietnam veteran, and burger specialist.

Sometimes, people just want a little peace and solitude, you know?

To me, Pig is a food-themed John Wick satire.

The advantage of this goes beyond price: most have to people go to Alba (Piemonte, Italy) every year for the Truffle fair for fresh white truffle because white truffle can't be stored for more than a week or two, so if you want it fresh, you have to go to the source, or get it air freighted, or taste it via inferior byproducts like "truffle cream" or truffle butter. If this democratizes location, it means more people will have access to the (much more tasty) white truffle closer to home. Less air deliveries, less travel, more truffle on eggs sunnyside up! (the traditional, recommended way to enjoy truffle in Alba)

I wonder what foodstuff will take place of truffles as the rare "it" ingredient once truffles are commodotized.

Hopefully we start commoditizing everything else, like saffron.

Saffron is already commoditized. It is shelf stable and, while it is very expensive by weight, very little weight is needed to flavor a dish. You can get it at most American supermarkets and cook with it.

The reason saffron is exotic (for Americans) is because Iran produces 90+% of it, and the US government wants to punish the Iranian government with trade sanctions.

Spain is the largest saffron exporter:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1031584/global-leading-e...

Maybe because of the sanctions on Iran mean that almost anyone else buying from them get immediately placed on a US blacklist.

Are you trying to bolstering the parent commenter's claim or trying to refute it? Iran does produce over 90% of the world's supply of saffron and we have sanctions against them, which obviously makes it hard for them to compete on the export front.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1135621/leading-saffron-...

> While more than 90% of black, highly prized Périgord truffles sold are cultivated, previous attempts to farm their rarer white cousins have failed.

I don't eat truffles myself (too strong a taste for me), but I wouldn't surprise me if most people don't realize they get the cultivated variety already.

My fingers are crossed for caviar. I know it's an acquired taste for some, but damn, it's good.

Caviar has been farm raised for a while now. Almost all the stuff on the market is farm raised. I have a tin of farm-raised Canadian sturgeon caviar in my fridge right now...

They even have techniques to extract the eggs without killing the fish.

Any chance you can link to brands that "extract the eggs without killing the fish"?

Not sure about every brand (there's over 2000 caviar farms apparently) but a few I found:

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/features/ethical-caviar-fa...

https://californiacaviar.com/pages/our-story

https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/meet-frances-no-kil...

Not killing the fish is an obvious way to increase the farm's yield so I imagine most producers are interested in it. Sturgeon meat isn't particularly demanded either...

Sturgeon is utterly delicious. Hot-smoked sturgeon is an incredible delicacy and it's an absolute riot when grilled.

I like it but many don't. Certainly not as in-demand as salmon, tuna, halibut, etc...

It's not as available because it's endangered species, not because there's no demand.

There's around 2000 sturgeon farms in the world, literally what this thread is about... It's still not demanded. The farm I get caviar from basically gives away smoked sturgeon...

I'd like to try it some time. Here's an Azerbaijani man with a 16 minute YouTube video, no words, carving up a sturgeon, roasting it, and feeding his family. 22 MILLION views.

https://youtu.be/hyu11H9ROQQ

Such a great channel. Love the videos where he cooks on his wood burning stove in the mountains.

It's not the same except in general aesthetic but the seaweed pearls from IKEA are still quite fun for £1.50 a jar.

I assume you mean Sturgeon caviar.

There are many kinds of fish which are used to make caviar. Some are more affordable than others:

https://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/caviar/

Myself, I really want to give Paddlefish a try. Strange beasts!

and sturgeon caviar has been in abundance periodically, used no different than ketchup

its really a great example of how people assign importance to things based on their price or scarcity, and that has nothing to do with anything related to the uniqueness or peculiarity of taste

Sort of goes hand in hand though? If something's less attainable, it becomes more unique and peculiar, only natural to crave it or treat it as something special.

Cf. Oranges during the war.

sort of, I respect supply and demand more than most, I am recognizing that its not currently due to current insatiable demand created by its taste but only constrained supply due to prior demand and likely supply mismanagement.

Black truffles are already commodified in a sense that the main aroma compound has been isolated, is very cheap to synthesize [1] and it's used extensively in "truffle-flavoured" products. That's what makes it possible to pick up a bottle of "truffle oil" in your supermarket of choice.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dithiapentane

Yep, that ship has sailed. Burger King in Singapore was selling a "Truffle Mayo Chicken Tendercrisp" a few years back, for heaven's sake.

>Black truffles are already commodified in a sense that the main aroma compound has been isolated, is very cheap to synthesize [1] and it's used extensively in "truffle-flavoured" products.

Just made some truffle-oil infused smoked mac-n-cheese.

Sometimes, capitalism is _delicious_.

And those truffle flavored products taste terrible and are not at all comparable to the real thing.

Nah, they're just different. And often quite good.

Chocolate ice cream and dog shit are comparable, just not favorably for the dog

Truffle oil most often contains no actual truffle. Instead, most uses a product like 2,4-dithiapentane which mimics the aromatics of truffle. Most if not all chefs hate truffle oil with an unholy passion.

Yeah, truffle oils are the vanilla extracts to whole vanilla beans. Surprisingly close. But noticeably far from the real thing.

Closer to artificial vanilla, actually.

You probably mean vanillin to vanilla (where its extract is the real deal, just a processed bean)?

Sometimes an 'essence' vs. 'extract' distinction is made, but double-checking that prior to commenting it seems that's not reliable, they're also sometimes considered synonyms.

Vanillin is no substitute for actual vanilla. At least in cream for custard or something - things where it's best used anyway - maybe if the thing already tastes 'flavoured' (I sort of know what I mean by that, but have no idea how to write it.. I realise it sounds silly) then there's no difference, like a sponge cake for example.

Synthetic vanillin is fine for baked/heated goods because the differentiators present in actual vanilla extract are overwhelmingly volatile compounds that evaporate in the first few minutes of baking. By the time you pull the goods out of the oven, the result is nearly chemically indistinguishable. This is why many no-bake custard recipes specify that the vanilla should be added only as one of the last few steps, after all heating is completed.

Yeah - don’t buy truffle oil unless you can actually see truffle shavings in the oil itself. Truffles are so aromatic, that just a sliver can infuse a small bottle.

I am extremely suspicious of industrial products with chunks of stuff in them.

If these shavings are real truffles, they are most likely low grade ones with little aroma, the bulk of the flavor being artificial. It is essentially the same as the "plain" product with chunks added to make it look more authentic. Read the label. In most countries, labels are regulated, chunks of stuff are not (except for food safety).

Akshually, natural truffle aromatics are not oil-soluable, so the scent still comes from the synthetics and shavings are there just for the decor.

> Truffles are so aromatic, that just a sliver can infuse a small bottle.

I don't know if I've only had low quality truffles, but basically all the truffles I've had in my life have been very mild and wouldn't be able to flavor a small bottle of oil.

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