Truffle challenges saffron’s spot as priciest culinary accoutrement
New York’s Le Cirque restaurant has just paid $7,000 for the largest truffle unearthed in years, weighing in at a whopping one pound.
Even at $65/ounce, one pound of saffron would total a paltry $1,040. It’s status as priciest spice is truly in jeopardy.
While we’re on the subject of truffles — has anyone else tried kosher truffle oil? There are at least a couple brands out there, but never having had truffles before, I have no basis for evaluation. Smells faintly of garlic…
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BS”D
I’ve never had a truffle oil that was worth anything, and I never tried a kosher one *which means it’s been many years). But I remember truffle paste as being extremely good on pasta- just shoot it out of a tube like toothpaste. But I’ve never seen a kosher one. A pity, because I can’t afford grade A truffles. The paste is made from the ones that don’t look good enough to sell. The paste is just pureed truffles mixed with olive oil, so it’s really pretty pure, and has much more flavor than truffle oil, for obvious reasons.
Have you ever sought rabbinic guidance as to the permissibility of unhekshered truffle paste?
BS”D
No, I haven’t. The problem is that it’s heated. It must be, since otherwise Clostridium botulinum can grow, since it’s a low acid food. And unlike some canned goods, truffle paste might be something that might find its way to a king’s table. So since something such as that might at least require bishul yisroel, even if all the ingredients are acknowledged kosher, it just seemed that it’s something which would require supervision even if only for that reason. So I never asked.
Beware of most truffle oil– it’s mostly synthetic (Wiki it if you don’t believe!). I suggest going with kosher truffle salt.
Fairway has truffle oil that is kosher. The brand is Asaro.
So what exactly is the process to get a truffle koshered?
Let’s say for a raw truffle , just picked out from the ground..
I heard that they have to be checked one by one ..
nu?