
There Are No Truffles in Truffle Oil (2014) - obi1kenobi
https://priceonomics.com/there-are-no-truffles-in-truffle-oil/
======
gabemart
If this is true, I am genuinely surprised that it is legal to sell "Truffle
oil".

Take the truffle oil offered by 3 big UK supermarkets [1][2][3]. All three
stores describe it as having:

    
    
      > Ingredients:
      > Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Truffle Extract
    

What else are we to interpret "truffle extract" as, other than an extract made
from truffles?

Sainsbury's describes it as "Truffle flavour" [3] which I guess I could see as
not actually stating it contains truffles (aside from the previously mentioned
ingredients list). But Tesco describes it as "Truffle Flavoured" [1], which
seems to me to more strongly imply it actually contains some truffle, and Asda
describes it as "Flavoured with White Truffle" [2] which to me sounds like an
unambiguous statement that it contains at least some white truffle.

If this article is accurate, it seems like a complete and utter con.

[1]
[http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292974500](http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292974500)

[2] [https://groceries.asda.com/product/seed-nut-oil/la-
espanola-...](https://groceries.asda.com/product/seed-nut-oil/la-espanola-
extra-virgin-olive-oil-flavoured-with-white-truffle/910002512430)

[3]
[http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/gro...](http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/la-
espanola-truffle-flavour-olive-
oil-250ml?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=PZcOd%2FzyK5UzG9u54ivMIX4MX2tRdTeU7MGFHHWCKsseTJyaQ63bOvh5V61FjA1RMzt4p5lrIWnHfuDhwZG51WeK9NxDJM7KdBhoYCj9RTbKVsTLeBSQojSDErlw%2FK2n&ddkey=http%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fla-
espanola-truffle-flavour-olive-oil-250ml)

~~~
andrewla
I agree that this seems odd, and all I've ever seen as proof that "truffle oil
does not contain truffles" is the bald assertion, without any other evidence.

In the US, I can imagine (barely) that this might be permissible, but in
Europe, with DOC and AOC laws, it seems almost impossible that something could
be called "truffle oil" as opposed to "truffle-flavoured oil". "Truffle
Extract" and "Flavoured with White Truffle" seem to be pretty unambiguously
claiming that truffles were involved in the preparation.

~~~
soperj
There's also been cases of shredded Parmesan not containing and Parmesan at
all, and a big part of it actually being woodpulp.

~~~
13of40
Cellulose powder - says so right in the ingredients, alongside lipase, calcium
chloride, and potassium sorbate:
[http://www.garycameron.org/files/2012/04/Kraft-100-Parm-q50....](http://www.garycameron.org/files/2012/04/Kraft-100-Parm-q50.jpg)

Even better, it says "The label doesn't just say parmesan, it says 100%
parmesan. That's because we only use the finest ingredients, carefully crafted
and aged for a sharp, distinctive taste that enhances your favourite dishes -
a taste that's 100% real, 100% parmesan."

They can get away with it because "parmesan" doesn't actually mean anything
outside of the EU.

Edit: As that other poster just pointed out, maybe it does mean something in
the US (that label was from Canada), since someone's actually facing criminal
charges for it.

~~~
tunap
Totinis frozen pizzas changed their description in last year or so. The new
description says "pepperoni flavored pizza topping" now. Who defines what
"pizza topping" is, however, IDK.

~~~
Udik
Flavored? It makes you wonder what those slices are actually _made_ of. Ah,
now I googled and saw the box. It says "made with pork, chicken, beef". In no
particular order and in variable proportions, I guess.

~~~
oxide
"mystery meat" doesn't have the same ring to it as "pepperoni flavored pizza
topping"

------
nommm-nommm
There was an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen where a contestant used truffle oil
on a dish.

Jet Tela (judge): truffle oil, man, there's just no place for it in the
kitchen.

Alton Brown (host): yes there is. _throws the bottle in the garbage._

Harsh.

(I do agree that using truffle oil is a sign of an amateur chef)

~~~
dagurp
Reminds of this over-the-top reaction on masterchef
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJEaSGzSOqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJEaSGzSOqE)

~~~
baby
The funny part is that Gordon Ramsay's BURGR restaurant has truffle oil in the
menu:
[https://gordonramsayrest-2938.kxcdn.com/assets/1-Menus/USA-R...](https://gordonramsayrest-2938.kxcdn.com/assets/1-Menus/USA-
Restaurants/GR-Burger-Menu-2016.pdf)

~~~
nkozyra
I don't see truffle oil specifically - it has truffle aioli which would
obviously be a different condiment/ingredient. Their reaction in that clip
seems to be in response to a few things:

1\. the assertion there's no actual truffle in white truffle oil 2\. that it's
pungent and the contestant was pouring it on

I imagine Ramsey is not opposed to truffles, per se, but certainly to fake
scents manufactured to smell like truffles and using the flavor to excess.

~~~
baby
Dang it, I read that menu too fast :)

------
koliber
There are many things that are flavored like something, but don't actually
contain any extract from the actual thing. I don't think you should focus on
truffle oil. This sort of thing is all around you, with many types of food.

Often times, the molecules used to flavor these foods are a major component of
a flavor of a given fruit, vegetable, nuts, or fungus. However, it is
sometimes cheaper to produce them synthetically rather than extract them. In
many cases the stuff used to flavor the food was never in the thing whose
flavor is being imitated.

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate)
is used to imbue a banana flavor.

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaldehyde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaldehyde)
gives you an almond flavor

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin)
is pretty much what you get in most vanilla-flavored things

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dithiapentane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dithiapentane)
is used to make truffle-flavored oil

The list goes on and on.

It's great to be aware that there is an industry in making things that taste
like other things. If you walk down your supermarket isle and pay attention,
you will notice that many things are not what they seem. You will first feel
surprised, maybe cheated, and perhaps angry.

Is truffle oil with truffles a scam? I don't know. I was certainly fooled
once.

I now try to pay attention to these types of things more. Things flavored with
actual extracts tend to cost more and are harder to find. However, with many
things, once you taste the real thing, you will notice that the fake stuff is
off. Often times, the synthetically flavored food taste flat, sometimes
chemically, and fake.

Don't get angry. Get educated, spread the knowledge, and pay attention to what
you eat!

~~~
4ad
The problem with truffle oil is that it smells like gasoline, not that it's
synthetic. It smells nothing like truffles. And it can't be made any better
since the compounds that give truffles their complex signature are not soluble
in oil.

There's a resemblance between rubbing alcohol filtered through bread and
bourbon, just like there's a resemblance between truffle oil and real
truffles, but the comparison is really apt. Even though there's some
resemblance, it's nothing alike, and it's really bad.

------
adlpz
I'm always amazed that this sort of blatant false advertisement is just
allowed anywhere in the world.

In other news:

> Historically, there is at least some mention of Italians infusing olive oils
> with real truffles, and Urbani Truffles sells truffle oil that it says is
> made from real truffles

I actually do that myself. Get a truffle, cut it in a couple of pieces and
leave it soaking for a month or two in good olive oil. Not that hard, not even
that expensive either if you live remotely close to where they grow. It's a
bit funny how they try to make this look like if it was some arcane secret.

~~~
bpicolo
Do be careful with making your own infused oils. Truffle/Garlic variants (and
I'm sure others) definitely carry botulism risk.

~~~
fdgdasfadsf
The only careful way to make your own flavoured oils at home it to not make
them.

~~~
tptacek
It's safe to make truffle or garlic oil at home. What's not safe is storing it
for long periods of time.

I make garlic oil at least once a week (by very slowly simmering cloves in
olive oil for an hour or so, which also produces spreadable roasted garlic.)

~~~
fdgdasfadsf
Eaten that day or the next? Long periods of time include a week - and
certainly a couple of months in the GPs case has a huge hazard and a non-zero
risk. I hope you and she continue to have good luck.

~~~
tptacek
This is Russian Roulette with a gun with literally hundreds of millions of
empty chambers, because virtually nobody ever gets botulism from garlic. Look
up the stats, remembering the implicit denominator.

Heat of any real kind quickly denatures botulism toxin. Significant heat ---
above 120c --- detroys spores, which are not themselves toxic. The roasted
garlic itself isn't brought uniformly to 120c, but the oil is, for well over
the few minutes it takes to get a 10D reduction. Botulism spore germination is
retarded (though not eliminated) in refrigeration.

Paranoia about garlic oil doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering how
many food systems we happily introduce not just cooked garlic into but also
_raw_ garlic. In many of those systems garlic is isolated in anaerobic
environments and little if anything is done to retard its germination and
doubling. But we happily eat Chinese food leftovers every day.

Garlic is also not a uniquely dangerous food. It's just a low-acid vegetable
that happens to grow underground. There are lots of low-acid vegetables that
are also potential settings for botulism; we just don't preserve them in oil.
But, like garlic, we use them in all sorts of food systems that could easily
germinate botulism. And still: almost nobody gets food-borne botulism.

To sum up:

Yes, I agree, don't jam a bunch of raw garlic cloves into a bottle of olive
oil and forget it in the back of your refrigerator. You'd almost definitely be
fine if you did, but a small risk of great harm is something worth taking
seriously.

But don't act like combining garlic and oil is the culinary equivalent of
combining pure sodium and water. It is not.

If you want to be paranoid, put some lime juice in your garlic oil and make a
mojo. Whatever.

------
hdlothia
Meh. The truffle fries at my local burger spot still taste good. As long as it
doesn't kill me I'm not overly concerned.

~~~
tptacek
French fries and popcorn are the only two allowable venues for truffle oil.

~~~
4ad
Dunno man, the smell of gasoline really turns me off.

Actually, that's not right. I find the smell of truffle oil similar to
gasoline, but I _like_ gasoline. Truffle oil turns my stomach around.

------
merraksh
It is just a coincidence, obviously, but the Italian for "scam" is "truffa".
Truffle itself is "tartufo".

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartuffe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartuffe)

------
codezero
And if you want to get meta angry, most olive oil isn't olive oil!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12281775](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12281775)

~~~
MrJagil
It would be nice if there was a website where you could look up the local
groceries you have in doubt. Maybe check how honest the brand is... We rate
movies why not groceries?

------
baby
Here's on bottle I bought in Marianno's, a supermarket in the US. The bottle
was around 10-15$ I think.

[http://i.imgur.com/6ygdyRR.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/6ygdyRR.jpg)

I does say olive oil, flavored, but also has a dehydrated truffle in it. Does
the dehydrated truffle not contribute anything to the taste?

Also, it tastes pretty good.

~~~
karlshea
> Does the dehydrated truffle not contribute anything to the taste

It does not.

------
kazinator
Cannot parse: "it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that
makes up part of the smell of truffles and _is as associated with a laboratory
as Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients._ "

Synthetic 2,4-dithiapentane _is_ associated with some laboratory somewhere,
whereas "Californian food", whatever that is, isn't necessarily "local and
organic". It's not local if I'm enjoying it in New York rather than in
California, and it's not organic if it didn't come from an organic farm.

------
dragonwriter
> it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes up part
> of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as
> Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients.

So, what this is saying is 2,4-dithiapentane has little more to do with a
laboratory than any other randomly selected ingredient, despite being linked
to it in popular culture? (Or, more likely, that this is an extremely poorly
chosen analogy...)

~~~
brodie78382
This analogy also gave me quite a pause. I'm going with the latter,
personally.

------
danielhooper
The truffle oil you buy from the grocer has a deserving reputation, it's just
scented oil, but I've eaten in restaurants where their truffle oil was
literally sliced black truffles in olive oil, so at least on a restaurant menu
you shouldn't dismiss "truffle oil" immediately.

~~~
tptacek
Fair enough, but at least in the US, if you're not eating prix fixe or paying
$30+ per plate, you should assume things that are "truffled" don't contain
actual truffles.

Also: apparently (according to eGullet, at least), oil infusions of real
truffle aren't all that powerful, and if you're trying to disperse truffle
flavor in a fat, butter is the way to go (you end up with flecks of truffle
strewn throughout).

------
Posibyte
I read in the article that truffles are outside of the domain of human ability
to control its growth.

    
    
      > Truffles are the world’s most expensive food because they resist all our efforts to control them. They cannot be mass produced or meaningfully eaten out of season.
    

Have there been any efforts to create some controlled version of truffles to
meet demand or make it more available? To me, the idea of a GMO truffle that's
available year round seems pleasing.

~~~
munificent
Yes, in fact the cultivated truffle industry is starting to get going now. In
the past few years, farmed truffles have appeared on the market. I tried
truffles for the first time a month ago and they came from Australia,
presumably one of the new farms there.

The history of this is pretty fascinating.

Truffles grow in the roots of certain oak trees. To cultivate them, you need
to plant those trees, carefully protect them from other undesired fungi, and
wait 7 to 10 years for the fungus network to mature in the trees roots. Any
given tree has an active lifecycle of only about 30 years, so after that, you
have to replant. This process was figured out in the late 1700s. By the 1800s,
there were over 100,000 acres of truffle farms in France, and truffles were a
reasonably priced easily available foodstuff.

Then WWI hit. 20% of the male workforce was killed and many others had left
rural areas and moved into cities. Without expertise and available labor, many
truffle fields were lost. This is when they became a rare expensive luxury.

In the past few decades, after truffles became fashionable, cultivation has
started again. It's only in the past few years that these new fields have
begun to sell product. Going forward, you can probably expect real truffles to
become more common and less expensive.

Oh, and the truffle I tried was shaved on top of a mushroom risotto. It's
possibly the best tasting thing I have ever eaten.

------
AdmiralAsshat
Commercially available truffle oil sold in US markets tastes absolutely
horrid. It has a pungent, chemical aroma, and its taste completely overpowers
whatever you put it on.

Do yourself a favor and just buy some high quality olive oil if you want a
better finishing oil for your food. Oilve-oil and vinegar taprooms seem to
have exploded in popularity in the US over the past few years.

~~~
kls
Agreed, I went to culinary school years ago and we had access to both high
quality black and white truffles, to say the least I fell in love on first
bite, we used to fry slices up in butter and eat them like a potato chip while
in class, that was heaven. My first introduction to truffle oil was years
later and conversely flavor hell. I could never really put the flavor into
words until I read this article, a gasoline like flavor is a perfect
description. I knew when I tasted it that there was no way any essence of
truffles where in it. Truffles make other flavors "pop" and have umami.
Truffle oil kills the flavor of the underlining ingredients and replaces them
with a chemical and gasoline taste.

------
huhtenberg
I beg to differ :)

[http://i.imgur.com/RtAsZKp.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/RtAsZKp.jpg)

This is from a fancy-ish local (European) supermarket that's generally praised
for the quality food they sell. The cost was around $15.

~~~
stouset
The flavor compounds in truffles aren't oil-soluble. So even _if_ you bought a
piece of truffle dunked in oil, you're probably not getting what you hope to.
If it tastes like truffles, that flavor is virtually guaranteed to not come
from the truffle at the bottom but instead from 2,4-dithiapentane.

~~~
huhtenberg
Oi vey, please kindly adjust your tinfoil headwear.

They might be insoluble in theory. In practice, it's dead simple to infuse oil
with truffles - take oil, heat it up, add shaved truffles and let it sit for a
bit.

~~~
stouset
Now leave that bottle on a shelf for a week, and see if the original bears any
resemblance.

It won't.

This isn't controversial, it's basic chemistry. The aromatics in truffles
(excluding 2,4-dithiapentane) are water-soluble, not fat-soluble. Applying
heat to your truffles-in-olive-oil mixture is not going to change this simple
fact.

~~~
huhtenberg
> The aromatics in truffles (excluding 2,4-dithiapentane) are water-soluble,
> not fat-soluble.

Source, please. What you say goes against what I personally sniffed at my
friend's house, which was the home-made truffle oil as per above.

------
dredmorbius
For related topics, see: fraud, signalling, Veblen goods, status, status
signalling, and aspirational goods.

Something rare and expensive is used to give the appearance of quality,
undercut by not only the lack of the underlying element within the good (a
chemical imposter is substituted), but with either an implication or outright
false representation that the aspirationally desired quality is in fact
present.

There's a tremendous amount of criticism of the concept of market function in
this story.

------
mmanfrin
Truffle oil is just the less-scary-sounding version of adding msg to a dish.
'Truffle flavoring' is plain msg, most likely.

MSG is great for cooking, it is the taste of "Umami". Umami/Truffle/Parmesan
are all just means of adding this msg taste to things without triggering the
anti-MSG rhetoric.

The Family Seasoning for Steak: Lowry's Garlic Salt, black pepper, msg.
Delicious.

------
nicolas_t
It's still quite possible to buy truffle oil with real truffles but of course,
it's not going to be 2.5 pounds for 250ml but instead 12 pounds for 250ml...

I usually buy this one [http://www.edelices.co.uk/olive-oil-flavored-black-
truffles....](http://www.edelices.co.uk/olive-oil-flavored-black-
truffles.html) which is quite good...

------
cmurf
Truffles, like most mushrooms, contain basically 0% fat. 0.2g of fat in a 28g
truffle is basically fat free. No fat, no oil to extract.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
This hypothesis can be easily and cheaply tested: buy some nice normal
mushrooms and fry them in olive oil. Does the oil taste of mushrooms
afterwards?

(If you want to do it properly, carefully heat a few cups of olive oil with
mushrooms in it, let it simmer for half an hour and then let it cool
completely before draining.)

~~~
cmurf
I'm not suggesting there are no oil soluble materials in mushrooms. But just
because there are such materials does not mean there is any such thing as
"truffle oil" or "mushroom oil" in the same way there are nut, avocado, and
olive oils which are produce by extraction. To actually get truffle oil would
be insanely expensive and insofar as I'm aware, there's no evidence either the
flavor or smell we're interested in with truffles is even in its own (minimal)
fats.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Well, "X oil" does not necessarily mean "oil made by pressing X", it can also
mean "oil infused with X". Case in point: chili oil, or "olio al peperoncino",
has been made in Italy for centuries and the name is not made up to confuse
consumers.

In fact, one can argue that the English language is really the problem here,
because it does not have prepositions like e.g. Italian has. In Italian, we
wouldn't be having this argument, because "olio al peperoncini" or "olio al
tartufo" are clearly in a different class of things from "olio di olivo" or
"olio di noce".

------
mmcclellan
If this is true of Truffle salt, then I have definitely fell for it before. At
least Wikipedia suggests truffle salt is not usually of synthetic origin
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_salt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_salt))

------
anexprogrammer
TL;DR Why don't US consumers give a toss about consumer protection?

This comes up time and again on HN. Most recently Apple not recognising the
iPhone 6 faults. US consumer protections appear to be none existant. I've long
known things were more "relaxed" over there, but it seems relaxed to point of
no longer even basically functional.

What the hell happened since the start of the 20th C when there were efforts
both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that the food you buy is what it claims
to be, unadulterated and safe? That stemmed from widespread adulteration,
short measures, and often horrific safety.

Why are American consumers (Republicans included) not picketing and email
bombing the Whitehouse or Congress? Do you not want to buy what you expect
you're buying? Do you like paying expensive restaurants for Artisan food when
they apparently buy the lot from the nearest discount wholesaler?

UK has the Tory party, who also love the market as the solution to everything,
even what it patently cannot solve. Every now and then they suggest some
industry voluntary agreement, or to relax some aspect of labelling. These
ideas rarely hit statute, as the Tory voters are consumers too and don't want
safety to be simply handed to multinationals. It's going to lose them voters,
so we usually end up with something fairly acceptable. EU legislation helps
greatly on this too.

We had the piece about restaurants in the US recently. That gave the
impression restaurants able to lie to such an extent that the expensive
"organic locally sourced salmon" you order from the menu might be none of
those things.

If it were the UK, and you sold Truffle Oil containing no truffle, the
retailer has broken the law and would be liable to fines and recalls(usually
used for safety issues, or discovering beef isn;t). The retailer can then
claim against the supplier or manufacturer.

There are legally mandated amounts where you can name something Chocolate
Spread (min % choc), reduce it below and you end up in the band where you have
to call it Chocolate Flavoured Spread (As found in cheaper ranges). Keep going
to the point of no chocolate and you have to switch to "flavour" which can be
artificial flavourings (bottom of the heap discounters). Those wordings
correlate to whatever percentages or weights have been mandated.

Large retailers therefore test products for safety, legality, labelling before
first sale, and they'll periodically randomly check. When _this_ comes up,
Americans often claim this isn't possible, there's simply too much stuff.
Walmart (Asda) do it here, and if you look at supplier guidlines for any large
UK retailers they'll all have details of the testing process you as a supplier
are expected to meet.

We then have Trading Standards who randomly check products on sale for safety,
especially food, and including restaurants. Breach those rules and you can go
to prison, or have the business _closed._ They can, and do, test for the foods
being what are claimed, the presence of allergens, labelling and even whether
it's organic or not.

All is not perfect here, of course. The Conservatives reduced the number of
Trading Standards such that the public are at higher risk (not enough to go
around), and some labelling has minor loopholes such as get outs for country
of origin, and the assorted terms "farm fresh", "free range" and the like.
They sometimes don't legally mean what common sense and the public think they
do.

So if I buy a bottle of Truffle Oil here and it has none, I can sue Tesco (not
for very much I expect). Realistically I'd take it back for a refund, or more
sensibly send it to Trading Standard who can send a letter with legislative
force.

~~~
CannisterFlux
The US government want their scams to spread to Europe too with the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It is all due to "lobbying",
which is a politically correct way to say "bribing" in America. Corrupt US
politicians doing the bidding of those multinationals, screwing over the
general public. As usual.

With Brexit expect some of that EU legislation protection to disappear in
Britain too. Maybe you'll get greek yoghurt instead of greek-style yoghurt
now, though it might be neither Greek nor yoghurt ;-)

~~~
anexprogrammer
I don't much like the sound of any of the parts of TPP I've seen leaked.

I'm not a fan of Brexit, it's a silly idea. Doubly so if govt decide to start
fiddling with the best aspects of legislation (consumer, worker and human
rights protections). I imagine one of the tabloids would try and get a
campaign going if they wear things down too much.

Well I hope so - I'm happy to pay a bit extra for stuff in return for the
proections we have.

------
slr555
What I find interesting is that truffle oil is often denigrated for not
containing actual truffle based solely on this lack of authenticity. I have
eaten white truffles in Italy, black truffles and dishes with truffle oil.
From an anecdotal perspective, white truffles are damn good, black truffles
are pretty damn good and truffle oil can be a nice addition. As long as you're
not being defrauded, I say no harm, no foul.

Sometimes one wants to go whole hog and buy organic this and prime that and
create all components of a dish from scratch. And there are many time when one
simply wants an easy dish that tastes great and doesn't cost a mint.

To me the real confusion in truffedom is caused by truffles being funghi and
there also being chocolate truffles. That's just wrong.

------
veridies
Related question: where can I buy real truffles? I've had them in the past,
but I have no idea where I can buy them from, online or in person, that I can
trust the quality of. Anyone have any leads?

~~~
alfanick
if you like truffles you should try morels - awesome mushrooms IMO on par with
truffles

~~~
evincarofautumn
One morning in college, I was walking to class and saw a cluster of morels
growing near my apartment. I checked that they weren’t false morels, and
resolved to pick them after I got back from class.

I returned to find that the lawn had been mown, and those poor shrooms had
been blown to smithereens. :(

------
shanev
Not surprised. There are many products like this. Most commercial maple syrup
for example contain no actual maple syrup, just flavored corn syrup.

~~~
dec0dedab0de
Not in Vermont. [http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133456136/Vermont-To-
McDonalds...](http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133456136/Vermont-To-McDonalds-
Dont-Mess-With-Maple-Syrup)

------
aidenn0
> 2,4-dithiapentane

Now I know what to blame when my roommate pours a couple tablespoons of
truffle-oil on whatever it is she is cooking.

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jheriko
i am not surprised at all.

a lot of this new fancy food type stuff is a scam... in most cases selling
inferior products and scams at higher prices.

"organic" means "not made with the benefit of modern developments in
agriculture" after all... i am stunned why people think this is a good thing.

noble savage "logic" perhaps?

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dsego
Truffles kinda lose their appeal when you have two lagottos digging some up
every few days.

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trufflexpert
Ok. They can grow truffles on a farm. In fact it was really big before the
world war. However it killed the price and after the war everyone had a
gentleman a agreement not to do it again.

~~~
sanj
[citation needed]

~~~
nkrisc
This Wikipedia article talks about cultivation of truffles:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle#Cultivation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle#Cultivation)

I can not attest to the veracity of the sources however. It also makes no
mention of a "gentlemen's agreement" to artificially inflate the prices of
truffles.

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randrews
Also, duck sauce contains no duck.

~~~
NoGravitas
Duck sauce is a sauce you put on duck. Is truffle oil an oil you are supposed
to put on truffles?

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MaxGabriel
The author's claim that truffle oil is just olive oil and and added scent
doesn't match up with my experiences. Truffle oil tastes totally different
from olive oil, and I don't like the flavor.

The oil being artificially flavored is much less of a con than not being any
different from olive oil.

~~~
chefandy
They didn't say it tasted no different from olive oil, they said it _was_
olive oil, with artificial flavoring added. Which is true. Tang is
artificially flavored water. That doesn't mean it's no different from water.

~~~
corin_
> " _Despite the name, most truffle oil does not contain even trace amounts of
> truffle; it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes
> up part of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as
> Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients.
> Essentially, truffle oil is olive oil plus truffles’ “disconcerting” smell._
> "

That implies that (most) truffle oil is only different to olive oil in smell,
which is a big difference from oil that tastes of either real or artificial
truffel flavouring.

~~~
chefandy
Aside from differing levels in what you can directly sense with your tongue–
Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour, and Glutamates (umami), which we would all
consider to be 'seasoning' elements (not broaching the topic of different
chemical effects, such as with capsaicin)– the primary difference between any
two foods is how they smell, which is why when you have a totally blocking
cold, you can easily tell if something is too salty, but you couldn't say what
herbs were used in it.

Consider a lime lollipop and a cherry lollipop with the same ratio of sugar
base to whatever acid they were using for sourness. Going strictly by your
sense of taste, maybe because of Anosmia, they would be utterly
indistinguishable. The flavoring components, however, which really just give
the pops a scent, are what makes the lime one taste like lime, and the cherry
one taste like... whatever cherry lollipops are supposed to taste like. Our
brain combines the tongue sensations and smells (and arguably, its appearance,
mouthfeel and sound) to create our perception of something's 'flavor.'

This is why seasoning food, especially with salt, is important. It's not going
to change the intensity of the brownness of a steak, or the freshness of an
ear of corn, but it stimulates the tongue in a way that makes our brain much
more aware of what we're smelling. It turns up the volume on the existing
flavors, as if to say "hey! pay attention to what you're smelling, because
it's coming from what's in your mouth." (I imagine this evolved from a
combination of our need to seek nutrition, as well as our need to detect
poisons.) Lacking stimulation on your tongue, foods come across as flat and
uninteresting.

I'm sure our bathrooms would be designed very differently if our brains were
worse at making the distinction between what we're just smelling, and what was
in our mouths.

