[Rainey]

Anyone know how long or the best way to keep truffles? I went the first 57 years of my life without ever having any so I'm completely truffle-ignorant.

I got some truffle butter at Trader Joe's at Christmas and it's been wonderful to put in mashed potatoes and on veggies but now it's gone and they won't have it again until next Christmas. So, in desperation, I went to Whole Foods to get a truffle to make my own truffle butter.

Sounds good, huh? Well, they only have a jar of 4 of them for almost $30! It would take me from now until Christmas 2012 to use that much truffle and, at $30, I could neither toss them nor use them with abandon.

So, again, how long could I keep them and what's the best way to store them?

[portdevoix]

Rainey,

Whenever I have any doubts about preserving anything, I vacuum seal it, and either store in a dark, cool cupboard, or in the freezer. If they are dry and to be stored at room temperature, then just vacuum seal them and store them in the cupboard. If they are in a liquid like water or oil, first you need to freeze them, and then vacuum seal them before storing them in the freezer. Label clearly and make sure the freezer doesn't swallow the truffles in its deep recesses.
_________________
Carolina


"La cuisine au beurre est toujours meilleure."
- Julia Child, 1912-2004

[wasabi]

Hi Rainey,
a dilemma with truffles? lucky you

one trick i learned in Italy was to combine sea salt and truffles (i do this in a mini food processor) to make "truffle salt" -- in the vein of vanilla sugar, lavender salt, etc. the salt preserves the truffle pieces and sprinkled over eggs, chicken, or a firm fleshed fish, wow. potatoes with it are good too!

you can make batches of the truffle butter shaped into logs and freeze them--one christmas i was able to take home a surplus of truffle butter (the buyer over estimated demand and sent us all home with us to enjoy as opposed to it just spoiling) and freeze it and i still use some to this day.

i've heard of preseving/jarring truffles in some sort of strong liquor, but even in store bought "preserved" ones, i don't enjoy the liquor's presence...i want the truffle damn it!

enjoy those gems, Rainey!

[Rainey]

Well, I haven't bought them because for 4 truffles I'd have to do 20 pounds of truffle butter and then I'd probably still have some bits left over for salt and to steep in oil. I've either got to have some surefire way to keep them OR a source for a single truffle before I spend money on somthing so expensive. Know what I mean?

It took me years to grasp the concept that "expensive" didn't mean I couldn't have saffron -- just that I had to use it judiciously. But saffron is easy to keep and can be bought in small amounts.