Too expensive?

When the harvest is small, the prices for truffles shoot up. They are most expensive before the festive season at the end of the year.

Alba truffle, Tuber magnatum

In 2007, a Chinese billionaire paid 300,000 dollars at a charity auction in Alba for a white truffle weighing just under 1.5 kilograms: so 220 dollars per gram. Usually, white Alba truffles cost 3000 to 5000 euros per kilo, or 3 to 5 euros per gram. Before Christmas, up to 9000 euros can be requested for one kilo.

Scrambled eggs with Tuber magnatum
Summer or Burgundy truffle, Tuber aestivum.

Summer or Burgundy truffles of the species Tuber aestivum cost between 400 and 900 euros, depending on the season. The Burgundy truffle harvested in autumn is darker on the inside. It smells more intense and overall is tastier. 

Périgord truffles
Périgord truffle, Tuber melanosporum

Black Périgord truffles cost between 1000 and 2000 euros per kilo, depending on the season, i.e. one to two euros per gram. It is best to buy them in February to early March, when the truffles have the most aroma and the prices are significantly lower than before Christmas and New Year. For a nice truffle scramble, 10 grams of fresh truffles are enough. Connoisseurs like to use fragments of truffles (French: Morceaux de Truffes). They don't look as nice, but their aroma and flavour are just as intense as whole truffles.

Truffle toast

The Chinese truffle Tuber indicum, black on the outside and whitish to black on the inside, costs only 80 to 100 euros per kilo. This amounts to ten percent of the price of the Périgord truffle, with which it is easily confused. Because the taste is bland, the truffle is often sold together with synthetic truffle flavouring. It is also often used as a cheap "truffle" ingredient together with flavouring in sausages. 

China truffle, Tuber indicum, unripe, as often offered
Scrambled eggs with Tuber melanosporum

In the 19th century, truffles were processed by the kilo in France and turkeys or poulards were stuffed with them. Today, truffles can be used by the gram, almost like a spice. Just five grams of white Alba or ten grams of black Périgord truffles can be used to prepare a beguilingly good truffle scramble or intensely fragrant truffle pasta - without synthetic truffle oil, for 15 euros per plate!

 

The basic recipe

For four servings of truffle scrambled eggs: 60 grams of black Périgord truffles are placed in the fridge with 8 fresh eggs in a sealed container after purchase. The scent of the truffles permeates the eggs through the shells and flavours them. The next day, beat the eggs together with a dash of cream. Then grate or crumble most of the truffles into the eggs and let the mixture stand for at least an hour. Season with salt and pepper and a little chilli. Then put the mixture into a well-buttered pan and slowly stir over medium heat until creamy. Serve with farmhouse bread and cover each portion with fine truffle slices - cut thinly with a knife or a truffle slicer. 

Attention! White Alba truffles are never stirred into the egg mixture, but only sliced over the finished scrambled eggs. Accordingly, the black truffles are added to the sauce on a pasta plate, but the white truffles are only scooped raw onto the finished plate.

 

It is similarly easy to place 1-2 millimetre thick slices of black truffles on buttered farmhouse bread or baguette and toast them briefly in the oven under the grill. Add a little sea salt and:

Bon appetit!