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 foodservice. 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.
