The fact that the word truffle is derived from the Latin for ‘swelling’ or ‘lump’ hasn’t put off the gastronomes. This rare tuber is more sought after than ever – and now also by us! For some time now we’ve been hatching a plan to add white truffle olive oil to our range -so we’ve been out snuffling with the best of them. Most of our oils are made by pressing the fresh fruit or herb together with the olives and we were keen to apply the same technique here.
So we bought 2,000 euros worth of white truffles and pressed them, fingers crossed, with our ripe, plump olives. Other truffle oil makers scoffed and told us this would never work; they said all truffle oil is made by adding a synthetic dioether called 2, 4-dithiapentane. Well it doesn’t sound nice and it’s derived from petrochemicals, so we ignored them and ploughed on with our fresh, natural truffles. If there was any justice in the world, this story would have a happy ending, with us producing the most wonderful natural truffle oil and forcing those truffleheads to eat their hats. Sadly it doesn’t. The truffles imparted no flavour to the oil when we pressed them together. We waited, hoping that time would give the truffle flavour more oomph. But no oomph came.
We are going to try one more time, this time with a warm infusion. So all is not quite lost yet. But if that last attempt doesn’t work, we’re afraid Nudo truffle oil might go the way of the dodo.
Nasty expensive experiment, but in this increasingly lab-food world your gutsy old school approach honors your commitment to purity.
Truffle oil has always seemed a smart condiment rather than a worthwhile product. You make wonderful oil and you seem have a handful of handsome tartuffi bianci. Works for me:)
Oh well, at least you didn’t sell out and pollute your lovely oils with petrochemicals! If that means that the world has to live without Nudo truffle oil, so be it…
I always thought that truffle oil tasted a bit like gasoline! Well done on sticking to your principals.
A couple of unasked-for suggestions from a nerdy foodie (trained as a biochemist):
1) Because the truffles are so expensive, what about a tiny pilot project, with just a few truffles and a few olives?
2) AND even more importantly, why not ask Harold McGee (author of “On Food and Cooking”) for his advice before you try again? He may know more about the right conditions (temperature, pressure, time) for the lovely Nudo olive oil to extract the essential truffle-ness. Or if he doesn’t know, at least a back-of-the-envelope estimate. . .
Quanto sei bravo! Auguri!
Ryn
Hello Ryn – thanks for your thoughtful questions. Our press takes a minimum of around 600lbs of olives. This is the smallest pressing we could make, and we guessed at the quantity of truffles it would take. Lesson learnt. i also trained as a biochemist, so we weren’t completely naive in our hopes and expectations (well, maybe a little). I will look up Snr Harold McGee, with whom I’m not familiar. Thanks so much for the tip off – maybe he will have the answer.
Ciao for now, Jason