Buying Truffles

The best preserved truffles are frozen, but these are sometimes hard to find and must be obtained from a reliable source that has frozen them soon after they have been harvested. Preserved truffles in jars and cans can also be found at most fancy food shops. The best-quality black truffles usually come in jars rather than cans and are often labeled “première cuisson” and either “surchoix” or “1er choix.” Première cuisson indicates that the truffles have been cooked only once during the preservation process. Inferior brands of canned truffles have been cooked twice and, as expensive as they are, have little flavor. Surchoix guarantees that the truffles are of a certain size and have a regular shape; 1er choix truffles are likely to be slightly smaller and a bit more irregular than those labeled surchoix. In any case, none of these are comparable to a fresh or frozen truffle and are rarely worth the money.