How to Buy (and Store) Truffles
The first rule of truffles is the calendar. Périgord black truffles run roughly December to February; summer truffles are cheaper, milder and honestly a different experience. Buy in season or don't buy fresh at all — an out-of-season ‘fresh’ truffle has usually travelled a long way to disappoint you.
The second rule is speed. A truffle loses around two per cent of its weight every day after harvest, and the aroma fades with it. You are literally buying evaporating money. Order as close to the day you'll use it as you can, and plan to finish it within a week.
Storage: airtight jar, wrapped in kitchen paper, paper changed daily, in the fridge. The famous trick of burying it in rice is a myth that dries the truffle out — the rice smells wonderful and your £45 fungus is diminished. If you must flavour something, use eggs: leave whole eggs in the sealed jar overnight and the aroma passes straight through the shells.
Using it: shave raw, over warm, simple, fatty things. Scrambled eggs, buttered tagliatelle, risotto, a baked potato with too much butter. Heat kills the aroma, complexity fights it. The truffle wants to be the only interesting thing on the plate.
And a word on truffle oil: most of it is olive oil flavoured with a synthetic compound called 2,4-dithiapentane and has never been in the same room as a truffle. It isn't necessarily unpleasant — but it isn't this. If the budget says oil, our honest advice is to buy an excellent piece of Parmesan instead.
