Oregon Black Truffle Recipes

Welcome to truffles 101, where you’ll learn what is a truffle, what truffles taste like, how they grow, price, why they are so expensive, different types, and how to cook with them. This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I make a small commission if you shop through them.

I’ve been completely obsessed with black and white truffles ever since living in Tuscany many years ago and enjoying them each time I return. While they are easy to find in Tuscany in many forms, from fresh to jarred carpaccio in every supermarket in Tuscany, they’re a bit more mysterious here in the U.S.

Today we are going to break down what exactly is a truffle, where they grow, white vs. black truffles, price, what they taste like, how to use them, and more. Don’t miss the best recipes and tips for cooking with this fabulous fungi.

What Are Truffles? (no, Not The Chocolate Kind!)

Truffles are a sack of spores, edible fungi, like mushrooms. Unlike mushrooms, truffles are subterranean – they grow underground. While some people refer to truffles as mushrooms, they are more like a cousin.

An elusive delicacy, truffles are served freshly shaved or grated in some high-end restaurants, and even more often as an infused oil or salt.

While truffles are prized today, and only just beginning to be cultivated in the U.S., they are not new. In fact, the oldest known truffle recipes were written around 400 A.D.

Creamy Truffled Polenta With Pecorino & Roasted Butternut Cream Sauce And Oregon Black Truffle

Truffles grow in symbiosis with a host tree, attached by microscopic mycelium (fungal rootlets) to the tree’s roots. This is most commonly an oak or hazelnut tree.

Originating in Italy and France, truffles are now cultivated all over the world, including the west coast of the U.S. and New Zealand.

There are more than 200 truffle varieties, yet only a handful are cherished for culinary purposes. Though they can be used interchangeably, there are nuances in seasonality, price, and how to use them.

On The Hunt For Oregon Truffles

Are probably the most common type and also known as French Black, Black Gold, or Périgord. They are in season from mid-November through mid-March and at their peak after Christmas.

Also known as the bianchetto, or whitish truffle, the white truffle is available from mid-January through the end of April. Its flavor profile is garlicky, like the more expensive

The black summer truffle goes best with other seasonal summer ingredients like pizza, pasta, and Caprese. This variety is typically available from May through August.

How To Find, Cook, And Gorge On Oregon's Truffle Bounty

An autumn truffle, the Burgundy has a reddish-black outer layer and ripens from September through December. Naturally, it works well paired with other autumn ingredients like squash and pasta. It would be lovely shaved over a pumpkin soup.

This autumn white truffle is available from September through December and is perfect with other holiday dishes and autumn ingredients. It’s also wonderful with simple egg and cream dishes, like the other varieties mentioned. This is a very expensive truffle, but it has a stronger flavor, so less is needed.

If your only experience with truffles is in the form of oil or salt, you might be surprised by how mild yet complex they are fresh. Each has its own unique flavor depending on ripeness and terroir, a bit like wine.

In Erika's Kitchen: Travel: Oregon Truffle Festival 2012

Unsurprisingly, these subterranean fungi taste earthy, musky, floral, and exotic. Fresh truffles retain more mustiness than processed versions like oil and salt.

Black truffles taste earthy, musky, sweet, oaky, and nutty. Use just a little warmth to bring out the flavor. Pair with deep red wines such as an Italian Barolo or French Bordeaux.

White truffles also taste earthy, pungent, and musky, but are a bit spicier and more intense with notes of garlic. Never cook white truffles, as heat will destroy the flavor. Instead shave over the dish at the last moment. Pair with white wines such as Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay.

Seared Truffle Scallops

Truffles can be found priced anywhere between $500 and $5, 000 per pound. In 2005, a 1.2 kilo white truffle was sold at an Italian auction for 90, 000 Euros!

The black truffle in the picture above was 1.8 oz. (51 grams) and cost $100 at my local Italian gourmet restaurant in Santa Barbara, CA. Like caviar, truffles are a pricy delicacy!

While truffles may seem outrageously expensive and certainly are a luxury, there is good reason. Truffle cultivation is part science, part art, and part treasure hunt.

The Truffle Business Is Being Disrupted

One can’t simply grow truffles in the backyard. In fact, a truffle orchard can take around a decade before truffles are ready. And when they are, a trained dog or pig is needed to sniff out the ripe truffles. Then, they need to be quickly shipped to a restaurant or store before spoiling, which happens in about 10 days.

For many, truffle oil and salt is the first and possibly only experience they’ve had with this ingredient. It does provide a delicious flavor to many dishes and is less expensive easier to find.

Unfortunately, it’s often not a true truffle experience. You see, most commercially available truffle oils are not made with truffles at all, as the product would not be shelf-stable or flavorful enough. Instead, they are made with olive oil and a synthetic truffle flavoring, often 2, 4-dithiapentane, the primary flavor compound in real truffles.

Hunting For Oregon Truffles

There are some truffle oils and salts that are in fact made with real truffles, and they both have a place in the kitchen. Try a tiny drizzle of truffle oil over pasta or soup, or a pinch of truffle salt over your potatoes.

To find the best product, always read the ingredients list. The following are some high-quality truffle products that make using truffles more convenient.

Fresh truffles will keep in the refrigerator for 1-3 weeks with proper care. Wrap gently in a paper towel and then store in a glass jar of food storage container in the fridge. Change the paper towel every few days to prevent molding.

Scrambled Eggs With Truffles (fresh Black Truffle Recipe)

Though it’s often recommended to store them in a covered dish of rice, and that is how I find them locally, according to the cookbook Cooking with Truffles: A Chef’s Guide by Susi Gott Seguret, you should not store it in rice, as it will draw out too much of the moisture and flavor.

It’s very simple, but there is a bit of an art to cooking with and eating white or black truffles. The trick is to keep it very simple. Save your complex recipes for another day. If you find yourself with something as special as a fresh truffle, let it be the star of the dish. Here are some important tips for using fresh truffles.

“If the truffle isn’t coming through in the dish, you shouldn’t amp up the truffle, you should lower the ambient noise around it.” – Chef Jason Bond.

Oregon Native Edible Truffles

Truffles are fungi that are grown on the mycelium (microscopic roots) of trees such as hazelnut and oak. They are elusive and therefore highly prized and cherished in the kitchen. Only use them with mild ingredients so that they can star, and use them with some fat to bring out their flavor.

Black and white truffles both taste earthy and musty. Fresh truffle is much milder than truffle oil or truffle salt, so you'll want to use lots of fresh shavings. White truffles are spicier and a bit garlicky. It's important not to cook fresh truffles with much heat or the flavor will disappear. Instead, warm black truffles gently to release the flavor and only use white truffles raw, grating over the finished dish at the last moment.Mushrooms are one of the only vegetables capable of sparking golden desires. They’re the meat of the vegetable world. (That’s why vegetarians are always eating Portobello burgers.) Truffles, a mushroom with a chocolate named after it, is the smoldering core of this hunger. If gold was a mushroom it would be a truffle and if chocolate was gold, it would also be a truffle (or something).

I wanted to actually taste this legendary fungus. I also wanted to see what they looked like and if all the hype was worth the money. Plus, Oregon Black Truffles are fresh and local in January. I procured my Oregon Black Truffles from local mushroom pusher Chris at Sweet Valley Organics. They were very fresh, high quality and a good price – plus delivery. Truffles should be dry and firm. If they are moist and squishy don’t buy them. Store them wrapped in a paper towel, in an air tight container, in the refrigerator.

Hunting The Great Oregon Truffle

White truffles are a bit different and much more pungent than black truffles, thus are treated differently in the kitchen. White truffles are eaten raw and black truffles are best cooked. Truffle oil and truffle salts are made from white truffles and are best from Europe (So I am told).

Legend has it that the truffles from southern Oregon and northern California don’t come close to rivaling the European variety. According to Chris, it’s taken the American mushroom hunters a while to figure out the best season to pick them and for awhile they weren’t very good. My 1997 edition of

Calls them “so-called summer truffles.” The Oregon Black Truffles I got were found on a Christmas tree farm under the trees, picked in

Recipes From The Oregon Truffle Festival