Had it at Providence and Drago this season. The smell and flavor is superior to last year. It’s supposed to be a great year for truffles. I’m told prices are down because they are so abundant.
Email said good until the 30th. Not sure about supply though.
Sale price cuts the cost to $3.42 per gram or Euro2.7 per gram, both seem like pretty good deals, or at least I haven’t seen anything close in recent years. Those on the ground in Italy can opine on E2.7 per gram vs local market pricing?
I ate truffle supplements last night at the very good Les Deserteurs (run by the chef and sommelier who deserted the also very good Le Sergent Recruteur). 5 Euros per gram, which is extremely reasonable for Paris restaurant pricing. I’ve eaten 7-8 truffle dishes over the past 10 days and the quality has been uniformly very good and the prices reasonable.
So noted. Thanks Barry.
Had the truffle menu a Providence last night. They’re good and abundant this year.
$3.42/gram is a great price. Fresh white truffles in the market in Montepulciano last week were $1,235/lb.
That’s a sweet price on discount from Urbani. Seems significantly lower that anything over the past couple of years. There was a good mix of rain and warmth this summer so the yield is high in quality and quantity, hence the good prices.
I was talking with chef Angelo at Factory Kitchen for a bit the other night about truffles. Btw, he and I agree that white truffles are better served on pasta, risotto, etc than red meat. But anyway, he tracks them daily and said there has been recent rain slightly tempering the ideal and prices have risen a bit on the Italian market over the past 5-7 days. Quality-wise I guess one would look for some extended ripening as the season progresses, but more than a limitless rain and soaked soil don’t help and can degrade what’s yet to be harvested. They’ll still be there, but less fragrant and subject to rot. You just never know if the great season and prices will improve as we get into November.
Jerry , if you’re still following, do you recall the tariff for the truffle dish at Melisse? I’m thinking of a visit in a couple of weeks.
Btw, my bro-in-law went on an arranged truffle hunt last winter and loved it. He said he was able to buy a nice large truffle from the hunter at a deal. Then didn’t have a problem having a few restaurants charge him a small fun gage fee and shave his own truffle on dishes over the following days.
Wholesale in LA is around $1500-1800/# right now I believe.
Nice to see you posting Saul!
How long will ( freshish ) white truffles keep? and how would you try to preserve that time – I need to use them in two weeks?
Use them ASAP. Don’t wait two weeks. Don’t store them in arborio rice, instead wrap them in a paper towel and put them in a ziplock
Agreed. Some people may differ on storage but I would not wait two weeks! Ours should arrive Thursday and we’ll use them Friday and Saturday.
JD
Place ziplock in refrigerator, not room temp.
Y, sorry, I forgot to add that.
cool thanks…
What are some simple but tasty recipes? (not popcorn or scrambled eggs)
just ordered a white truffle and will get it on Friday. I’ll make some fresh pasta and get some fresh eggs at the farmers market. besides some good butter I think I’m set but what do drink with all this? I don’t have any Italian wines nor any aged burgs. plenty of old northern and southern Rhones and lots of Rhys pinot
Pasta, butter, salt, truffle. Sublime.
I ordered some from urbani last week and they were “meh”. They smelled OK when whole, but lost almost all of their umami once sliced over hot risotto, etc. There were a few red/brown spots in the truffle, which were also more “gooey” than hard. I used them the same day they were delivered, which was overnight shipping. Definitely not worth the $.