Why worry? The season of the superb black truffles (Perigord truffles) just begins and if you ask me those are not worse than the whites. Maybe the smell of them is a little bit discrete compared to the whites but that is compensated by a stronger taste. IMHO. My truffle man always tells me that the white truffles get more attention because the Italians are way more talented marketing wise than the French. And he tells me that no truffle smells and tastes as the other and that is true. 2 weeks ago I smelled at about 20 white truffles of different size and no one smells like the other. So there is no such thing as “the” white or “the” black truffle. They are all “individuelles”.
The Italians better marketers than the French? The relative economies say not. For instance, the Italians make an enormous array of cheeses, every bit the quality of the most famous French cheese, but they are unknown outside of Italy and often outside of their area of production. Why? Absence of marketing genius. Only the Parmigiano consortium seems to get the message out the way that hundreds of French cheese producers do.
As to Perigord black truffles, while one hears “Alba white truffles” bandied about, followed by the persistent rumors that most sold as such come from everywhere from Umbria to China, Perigord has its own problems. Climate change has devastated the area, which now produces a fraction of what it once did, while worldwide sales are a huge multiple of what was produced in boon times in the past. (THAT is the triumph of French marketing of the Perigord truffle!) Indeed, unlike white truffle spores, black truffle spores can be readily transplanted, and “Perigord” truffles are a growth industry in…the Piemonte, which climate change has rendered suitable for their production.
While Jurgen is right that no truffle, black or white, smells or tastes like any other, that in no way mitigates the hard fact of good, bad and average truffle seasons. It is a simple law-of-averages proposition. That I found two small quantities of very good white truffles has not made white truffles worth the price or the risk this year. The weather conditions were not conducive to truffle production, the output is tiny and the truffles small, and the odds overwhelmingly favor unsatisfactory experiences, with the absence of flavor from immature truffles being the problem. There will always be aroma…how else could the dogs find the truffles? It is just that jawbreaker-sized white truffles at 4,500 euros a kilo are not worth eating…
The only thing this thread is missing is one thin mint.
Yeah. Sure, I can buy all the truffles that I want of every color, but there ain’t a single dog in Italia who can sniff me out an After Eight dinner mint. Or a plate of huevos rancheros. Or an order of hot Cafe du Monde beignets…
White truffles sell for more bucks then the Perigord truffles. Are they better? Not in my opinion. They are better marketed. At least in the field of truffle marketing the Italians won over the French.
This is what I love about this board: tons of experienced/educated posters on a variety of topics for me to learn from… and huevos rancheros and beignets are revered in a thread about truffles. I can’t wait to get back to New Orleans later this month.
I feel better…
Bill, would you care to elaborate on this point? Within the traditionalist parameters that obtain in Giacosa’s cellar, does reductive wine making simply mean regular topping up of botti and careful attention to bottling date? Or are there other techniques / methodologies in play that differentiate Giacosa from other traditionalist producers and of which I’m not aware? Definitely food for thought.
Jürgen
Lucky you - you pay less and enjoy the taste and aromas just as much ![[basic-smile.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/83717c74df9b0ce202453063bc4f11baf0ee6b8a.gif "smile"){kind=small}
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Sadly my experience is that for my palate white truffles are more fragrant than Perigord truffles, so I pay the extra. Thankfully white truffle works amazingly well with simple (runny) eggs, so my favourite dish is not so expensive as it could have been.
It seems we chose a good year not to go to Italy.
regards
Ian
Ian,
I agree that the white truffles are more fragrant but the black ones have more taste IMO. A French chef told me once: For white truffles you need a slicer. For black truffles you need a cook.
Regards
Jürgen
BTW – my favorite truffle receipt. Try it:
Put a good portion of butter in a pan and fry it until it´s hazelnut butter. Then add some chicken bouillon and 2 pieces of garlic. Boil for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper. Finally add some older Parmiginano and sliced black truffles. Put the pan aside now and let the hot sauce rest for 2 minutes. The reduction should be still juicy and not too thick. If it´s too thick add some of the water you cooked the noodles in. Now add the al dente cooked Tagliatelle. That´s it. Bon appetite.
Sadly, no idea. I am not aware that anyone other than the Giacosa winemaking team knows exactly what goes on there, and the producer that I quoted was offering highly educated speculation, I believe…
I enjoyed this video.
Russell, I can only assume that you were able to focus on the truffles and the food without actually looking at or listening to “Action Bronson”. (The custom here is to have the pig seek out truffles, not to take the pig to top NY restaurants and FEED him truffles. 
) Replete with the baseball cap worn backward, the international symbol of those with IQs under 90. (That explains why you see the occasional actor or actress sporting the backward-cap look.) What a waste of beautiful truffles, great-looking food and fine wine. Fortunately, the gentleman apparently has employment as a rapper, but Eminem he ain’t…
Klapp, Eminem is so 2008 . . . .
Drake is now shit hot. And annoyingly, on every damn station when I jump in the car. He likes truffles too, true story. Google it.
True. But Action Bronson is so…Flushing, Queens! And “Drake”: who is Drake? Are you speaking of Paul Drake, Perry Mason’s private-investigator friend? That is so 1958…
I have to admit I was not familiar with that fellow and looked him up part way through when the kitchen guys seemed to recognise him. I actually found him quite good fun, though I think a meal with him holding his beard back the whole time would be annoying.
I was thinking of getting myself one of those blue jackets but I’m not sure if they come in sizes for the non obese?
What, no ketchup on those eggs?
I need to look at the video again, but did I hear Michael White, one of America’s most famous chefs, state that he could tell where a white truffle was from by the smell? I hope not. I hope that he was just blowing chef-speak smoke up the formidable butt of the dumb guy. I would not eat anything coming out of a kitchen of anyone who could be at once THAT arrogant and ill-informed…
If you keep these N.O. references up, you are going to have me believing that you have the yat gene!
Yes he said he could tell where in Italy it had come from…