Only black truffles. White truffles..the alba variety (more expensive) is shaved and can be had raw. You can cook black truffles.
Some 10+ years ago, I scrimped and saved and bought white truffles for something like 400 quid in London. I had only omelettes and pasta and risottos for days and I stretched it and stretched it. I didn’t want to try anything else fancy..just a blank slate to imbibe the aroma of white truffles. A Hungarian Tokay and a very pungent raw Camembert. I could only afford McDonalds soft serve and fries for a week after that but it was totally worth it.
As I am typing this..and I am obviously imagining it..I can almost smell it ..it’s like the aroma of those meals are still clinging to the inside of my nasal passages.
I used to work Michelin kitchens…and classical recipes were always revered..but there was always someone who’d want roast chicken with black truffle slices under the skin. A tame version of the original..roast chicken inside a pig’s bladder. I have had many humiliating experiences including shaving a piglet with a razor in a bathtub(not to mention Glorious 12th shenanigans which were probably not legal..who knows) , but never have done the bladder balloon bag for truffle chicken.
Others can be simple and not fancy at all. Or a consommé with black truffles in it and a puff pastry dome so a plume of truffle steam hits them when they break the dome. These are text book recipes..old fashioned escoffier stuff, but there will always be someone who will wax lyrical about them.. I wonder which generation will lose the nostalgia of it all.
When I came back to the states, I had a few usual suspects under my sleeve that I repeat again and again. The most popular one was seven hour gigot d’Agneau with robuchon pomme purée and a cream of garlic soup. The Americans refused the lamb because it was falling off the bone(that was the point) and suspicious because it was ‘still pink’. And insisted on truffles in the pomme purée even though none was available and I only had fake truffle oil at hand. That was the last meal I cooked and I stopped cooking meat all together. There is something about America that can’t get past beyond a well made burger. It’s very insulting to my craft. It makes me very sad because I love to feed people..but I also realized that I love feeding people only because they loved me.
Sorry..went off on a tangent and then down the mushroom path.
Fwiw re the OP, I think I know that Sonoma farm…I remember when they planted and many were skeptical. they planted in a hazelnut orchard. It’s the most suitable one for California. It’s not worth planting new growth oaks as they are protected under state law and can’t be felled if need arises. Further..oak disease is ravaging California..sudden oak death is clearing off old growth oaks. It’s all very depressing. But I am very happy that there are truffles in our own CA backyard. They use dogs now to dig them up instead of pigs, I heard…because pigs will gobble up everything. Thousands of dollars worth of truffles in one snort.
Seems like it’s around 10,000 euros/lb now. When I bought it..it was probably 2200-2500 euros per pound. That was almost a decade ago!
To me, after the Italian white truffle experience, black truffles are not worth it anymore. I just want to preserve that one special memory(of many meals) untainted!
