I don’t know about truffles laws, but based on many (too many) people that have mentioned to me, olive oil that has “from Italy” on the label are not. They come from Spain and everywhere else that are as far as Turkey.
Why a total waste of money?
They’re weak. I put a whole ounce in a single serving of Bocuse VGE soup (with 1 cup of stock) and it was merely a hint of flavor. It was similarly weak in chicken recipes. You’re better off with good quality truffle oil or spending extra on Perigord, even if you don’t get as much.
Do you have a recommendation for a good quality truffle oil? One without chemical aroma.
My understanding from olive oil is that if it’s packaged in Italy, can be labeled as Italian even if it’s Algerian. Similarly for Chinese truffles packed in Italy. Not sure about regional labeling.
Playfully labeled my Saturday @home dinner as bordering on offensive in one of my social media.
I simply chose to call it obscenely good.
This is not exactly correct. Oils bottled in Italy can legally say “imported from Italy” regardless of where the olives were grown or pressed, but they must also declare the origin(s) of the oil in the bottle. They often do that with codes on the back label. There is reportedly still a great deal of fraud in that particular industry, but it’s not as simple as legally labeling foreign oils as Italian.
I doubt that under EU law you could sell truffles from outside of Alba as “Alba” truffles, though you might be able to get away with it in the US, implying “Alba-style” truffles or something of that sort.
I stand corrected, although I think in terms of consumer labeling laws, the distinction between “imported from Italy” and “Italian” is not meaningful absent clear additional info on country of origin in similar sized font and not in code .
Pleasantly surprised with a truffle yesterday as a gift. Thinking of going a less traditional route this time.
Anyone have some favorite recipes to share using winter black truffles? I have some coming this week and will make the “typical” dishes - eggs, capellini… I need to expand my recipe collection
Thanks
Just ordered a few ounces myself from Urbani, not knowing how the quality is yet. My humble you can’t beat the egg treatment pun intended. I’m assuming you’re storing your truffles and eggs together and then going from there. Yep have done the pasta thing giving the truffle a quick go in oil and/or butter and shaved them here and there and everywhere and incorporated into a sauce/demi glace etc, but for pure enjoyment the egg is an ideal vehicle to deliver the best bang for the buck.
I have 100g of black truffles from TruffeFrance arriving on the 23rd. I suspect we will divide them between the four of us with eggs for Christmas breakfast. Our hosts keep their own chickens.
Season is probably going to an end relatively soon for the white truffle, but I found some yesterday that still had great quality (but probably 50% more expensive than what I was paying last year). I ended up with some very nice black truffle that I’ll be using for the next couple of days. Going to shave some over some warm Mont d’Or cheese, probably some over some eggs this morning, and we’ll see what’s left after that.
We started our Sunday meal fairly traditionally, with a truffle egg fonduta topped with white truffle and a side of butter-toasted bread. It was followed by a butter poached lobster roll with truffle and a side of black truffle tater tots on top of the fonduta. We ended the meal with crispy braised pork shoulder over sage stuffing and more shaved truffle.
Yesterday, we finished our truffle by shaving it over a white pizza with runny truffle egg yolks. That might have been my favorite dish of the week. 
We have about a dozen eggs left, destined for a few croque madames this weekend.
Just got a couple of ounces of black truffles from Dartagnan. Excellent quality, and my scrambled eggs this morning were unbelievable.