# The truffle industry is a big scam. Not just truffle oil, everything
source: https://ift.tt/ulC4Gdo tags: #literature uid: 202212091044 —
There is a good joke: because of sanctions against Russia, the price of tartufata will increase. I may not be objective about the quality of the joke, as I invented it, but the fact is: what is sold as truffle flavor is 2,4-dithiapentane, an organosulfur compound that is naturally found in truffles, and though it is practically impossible to extract it from truffles, it can be extracted from oil.
Liters of this petroleum-derived product, the colorless 2,4-dithiapentane liquid, are sourced for a few euros from Italy, Germany, or China, and then they end on your plates and refrigerators, in pasta, tartufata, oils, cheeses, and sausages, but also in expensive delicacies with a prostituted label “truffles.”
Some will compare the difference between the natural flavor of truffles and the artificial truffle flavor with the difference between sex and sniffing dirty panties.
Winter white truffle, or noble white truffle, is the most expensive and prized truffle. It can be found only in late autumn and winter, no earlier than September 15, no later than the end of January. The world’s most famous winter white truffles are found in Alba, Italy, and Croatian Istria is also known for them.
An excellent real truffle is mild and expensive. Which means it has to be the king of a dish. There is no point in hiding or masking something that costs hundreds or thousands of euros with other flavors. The only right way to serve truffle dishes is to: prepare a mild, neutral dish (such as pasta with butter) and grate truffles in front of the guest.
In Alba, Italy, this is done as follows: a dish arrives in front of you (you can smell it to make sure it doesn’t have the artificial truffle aroma) together with a waiter with a scale. The waiter weighs the truffle and then grates the truffle on the dish until you say stop. After grating, the waiter will weigh the truffle again and charge you the difference. Outside of Italy and France, this practice almost does not exist.