Truffles: Affordable Holiday Luxuries

The holidays are filled with many extravagances. But you don’t have to break your bank to treat yourself and your guests to truffles, those rare, earthy and flavorful fungi. There are many truffle-laced specialty food products available at varying price points to add extravagance to your parties and gifts.

Here are some of our favorite truffle-inspired products:

• Fromagerie Delin, of Burgundy, France, offers a triple crème Brillat-Savarin with truffles inside and Regal de Bourgogne with truffles rolled on the outside.

• Truffle Tremor, a cheese made from ripened goat’s milk by Cypress Grove Chevre, won the 2009 sofi™ Gold Award for Outstanding Cheese. Serve it alone with a dry white wine as a luxurious appetizer, add an ounce per serving to polenta or risotto or even apply a small amount of the cheese to mashed potatoes and parsnips.

• Transatlantic Foods won the coveted Outstanding New Product sofi™ Gold Award for their Aux Délices des Bois® black truffle butter. Part of the appeal of the butter is that it contains actual shreds of truffle, for a potent flavor.

• Fabrique Délices Artisanal Charcuterie has a new 3-ounce format of black winter truffle butter. Much like regular butter, this 100 percent, all-natural French butter is suggested as a finish for any red meat, fish or lobster, pasta, risotto, baked or mashed potatoes or steamed or sautéed vegetables.

• Seattle’s Creminelli Fine Meats offers Salami Tartufo made with black summer truffles from Northern Italy. It’s one of the more expensive salamis on the market but with an unforgettable taste. Fabrique Délices’ Foie Gras with layers of Périgord truffle, truffled duck ballotine (boned, stuffed and roasted) and truffle mousse. Simply slice and serve on a charcuterie plate with cheese, olives and toast points.

• FungusAmongUs produces small batches of affordable items like Italian green peaches with truffle, and truffle mustard, which can elevate a basic sandwich into the stratosphere. Don’t miss its new organic extra virgin olive oil infused with white truffle.

• La Boutique de la truffle features white truffle cream, truffle honey, truffle peelings and truffle carpaccio. 

• Les Trois Petit Cochons Truffle Mousse, a combination of chicken liver, truffles, sherry and Pineau des Charentes.  –Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.

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