Epicurean Butter offers both Black Truffle Butter and White Truffle Butter in three ounce retail packages and one pound tubs and five pound tubs for food service. Both finishing butter flavors are made with high-quality Italian-imported truffles and have that signature pungency of truffles. Truly, open a container of our truffle butters and you are gently hit in the nose with that scent that makes truffles so adored.
The Difference Between Mushrooms and Truffles and The Difference Between White and Black Truffles
Truffles are similar to mushrooms, but they are not mushrooms. Mushrooms are a fungus that grow above ground in the woods. They are always foraged in the wild and never cultivated. Truffles are a fungus that grow below ground in the woods, and they aren’t visible without a little digging - and sniffing. You often hear about those truffle hunting dogs and pigs that do the hard work. (Watch this video to see all about it.)
Aside from the color of the skin and flesh of the truffles (white truffles have lighter gray-ish flesh and black truffles have dark brown-ish flesh), there are a few other subtle differences.
White Truffle Characteristics: Sweet notes; hints of garlic; very fragrant; often not cooked to keep that pungent flavor; best when truffle shavings top a dish (or when a compound butter gently melts on a finished dish).
Black Truffle Characteristics: Earthy, musky notes; less fragrant than white truffles; often cooked to bring out that flavor (though we still recommend you “finish” a dish with our Black Truffle finishing butter and don’t “cook” with it (use your olive oil or unsalted butter for that). Black Truffles are usually harvested in the summer.
Truffle Butter Serving Suggestions
Pictured here: Risotto with Black Truffle Butter
The Epicurean Butter team really enjoyed brainstorming for this blog post. While most of us think about finishing a steak with truffle butter as the best way to enjoy it, there are actually endless ways to enjoy decadent truffle butter.
Snacks: Crusty bread, popcorn
Main dishes: European style sandwiches, use as a white pizza sauce in place of traditional red sauce, on fun pastas like tagliarelle or agnolotti, rubbed under the skin of roasted chicken, grilled cheese (Use only a touch of truffle butter on the underside of the bread. A little goes a long way.), scrambled eggs, mac and cheese, for dipping seafood (hello, lobster and shrimp!)
Sides: grilled vegetables like asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, risotto, butter sauce, polenta, french fries (or mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes - any kind of potatoes!)
Desserts: soufflé (try orange liqueur to sweeten), panna cotta, savory cookies or biscuits with a only touch of sweetness
Either White Truffle Butter and Black Truffle can be used in the above serving suggestions. While there are differences in flavor, the butters are interchangeable. It usually comes down to preference. That’s why we recommend you try both Epicurean’s White Truffle Butter and Black Truffle Butter to see which you like best!