Truffle oil has an intense and potent flavor. A little bit goes a long way. Plus, using oil is a much easier route than grinding and cooking actual truffles into your recipe each time! While store-bought truffle oil is expensive and can be filled with additives, making your own truffle oil is pretty simple at home and more affordable. A quick Google search shows bottles selling for around $30 USD a pop (easily more in many cases). We’ve tested three different methods that all use common household items and rated them according to how good they are at extracting truffle flavor.
just 2 ingredients, that’s it!
Black truffle oil is simple and efficient to make.
Olive Oil: Start with ½ cup of good quality olive oil (one that’s mild in flavor). Try to go with one that’s pretty natural and doesn’t contain any chemicals or additives. Truffle: Depending on your infusing method, you will need 1 whole black truffle or 1 tablespoon of shaved black truffle.
3 different ways to make it
There are three ways to make truffle oil at home. We’ve rated each method to save you time when deciding which method is best for you.
Method 1: Hot Steep (Grade A)
Pros
Fast infusion time: This is a very quick and easy infusion method. If you want to enjoy your oil today, this is the method for you!
Cons
Medium shelf life: Typically, when the infused item is in the oil (as opposed to not touching like in the hover method), the oil will expire faster. Heating the oil allows is to be stored slightly longer than in the cold step method (below) – about 3 months.
Method 2: Hover (Grade B+)
Pros
Long shelf life: Because the truffle and oil flavors fuse together without touching, they both last longer! Not degraded: With this method, the delicate truffle flavors aren’t degraded by heat, so you can use the truffles later to add to risotto, to make truffle butter, and more.
Cons
Long infusion time: This method takes up to a week to fully infuse, so you can’t enjoy it for a while.
Method 3: Cold Steep (Grade B)
Pros
Not degraded: With this method, the truffles aren’t degraded by the heat. Easy method: Since no cooking (or jar assembling) is required, this is a simple steeping method.
Cons
Long infusion time: This steeping method takes one week to infuse. Short shelf life: With a one month shelf life, this method does not last as long as the others. The oil will expire sooner because the truffles are in the oil.
are truffles mushrooms?
Truffles are rigid, textured, ball-shaped delicacies that grow underground. They’re much like mushrooms in that they’re edible fungi. What makes them different, however, is their specific growing conditions and the fact that growing, harvesting, storing, and even finding them is much trickier than with mushrooms. They take around 7 years to grow and need very specific conditions to do so (particular soil and moisture). This makes farming them unreliable, so most truffles are instead just found in the wild leading to their expensive price tag. Here’s the funny part – humans are pretty terrible at finding truffles, so this is where pigs come in. Yep, pigs are used in harvesting, as they naturally search out truffles and are able to find them hidden underground, all thanks to their sense of smell. Read all about what truffles are here!
now, let’s use the truffle oil
This oil works great on vegetables and garlic bread or in pasta, soup, and more. Here are some recipes:
Truffle Popcorn: Just drizzle oil on at the end for leveled-up popcorn! Mushroom Truffle Pizza: Drizzle truffle oil on at the end, optionally shaving thin slices of truffle on top! Truffle Mac & Cheese: Truffle oil + white cheddar = a match made in heaven.
