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Bang vs. Buck: Truffle honey
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Bang vs. Buck: Truffle honey
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| Photo l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| My funky honey |
In a quality establishment, a typical 1-ounce serving of artisanal cheese with a blingy accoutrement and crisp carbohydrate vehicle generally runs $5 to $8. Though the virtuoso cheese gets butts in the seats, it is often the accompanying spiced nuts, infused honey, preserves or mostarda that coaxes moody fromage into really singing.
This must have been my reasoning when I bought a $25, 8.8-ounce (250-gram) jar of Sabatino Tartufi truffle-infused honey.
It was after the farm-table dinner at Talula's Table; I'll say Bryan Sikora's heady cooking must have fried my food-budget defenses. At any rate, I did retain enough sense to check that the honey did indeed contain the actual spendy fungus and not just 2,4-dithiapentane, the most common chemical compound (marked "truffle essence" or "flavor" on ingredient labels) that's blended with olive oil to produce inexpensive but one-dimensional "truffle oils."
Sabatino Tartufi truffled honey is distributed by Sabatino North America, headquartered in the Bronx. Its ingredient list reads: "acacia honey, white truffle (tuber albidum) 1.5%, flavour." The signature earthy pungency of fresh truffles, chopped and in evidence as a sort of floating plug on top of the golden liquid, is smoothed and tamed by the super-sweet honey.
The complexity of the fungus was highlighted when the honey was drizzled over Black River Blue from Wisconsin (purchased at Green Aisle Grocery, $5 for 8 ounces). The sugary, tongue-coating honey cut through with salty, citrusy blue cheese and the initial funky truffle attack gave way to a long thoughtful finish. The tartufi showed equal ardor for biscuits (pictured) that were too flat to call successful, but too tasty not to repurpose as a scone-like launchpad for other flavors. Sliced hosui (Asian apple-pear) provided the obligatory plant component and a watery crunch to an otherwise fatty plate.
Very well, very decadent. But worth the price? Here's a Bang vs. Buck breakdown:
One absolutely lavish serving of Black River Blue with Sabatino Tartufo truffle honey and Asian pear
One ounce of Black River Blue cheese at $5/8 ounces.: $.63
About 5 percent of the $25, 8.8-ounce jar of truffle honey: $1.25
One hosui pear from Hung Vuong Supermarket: $1
TOTAL: $2.88
Though 25 clams is a lot of money to spend on a condiment, the stuff elevated the plate from the standard, well-loved combination of blue cheese, honey and pear to a transcendent, money-can't-buy-this kind of moment. Overall you're still saving major paper on a rare and unique gustatory experience -- excellent bang for your buck.
[...] Meal Ticket today, fromage hound Felicia D. went about examining the virtue of a $25 truffle honey she recently scooped. To test if the nectar was worth its price, she fashioned the drool-worthy [...]
And yes I just checked my truffle oil to make sure there was no di-, glyc-, or -ane in the ingredients, and discovered just good ol' Tuber Magnatum Pico. Word! I did not get banged for my buck!
[...] with the tells truffle “flavor” or “essence” means the product within is made from chemicals and contains nary a trace of the fragrant fungus. I might find it marginally acceptable if it [...]
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