Is Truffle Oil Really Truffle?

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In the a seventies or 80, chemists figured out how to synthesize one of the ke components of truffle smell. So this whole new wave we've seen of truffle products is all truffle oil. And it's so totally syntetic. There's no truffle in there, but it does give people a very strong experience,. Not necessarily a great experience, i think.

Journalist and author Rowan Jacobsen talks about his book Truffle Hound with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. This conversation has nothing to do with chocolate. It's about the strange world of underground fungi, found in the forest by specially trained dogs and used by chefs and home cooks around the world. You will learn about truffle oil, cooking with truffles, truffle hounds, and the economics of all of the above.