Fresh truffles are one of those unique culinary ingredients with a potential to provide every dish with a distinguished taste and flavor, but in order to do so truffles have to be fresh or, better to say, kept fresh.
Once found and dug from the ground, truffles are first thoroughly cleansed with a soft brush and with running cold water. This first step of preserving truffles and keeping them fresh is done by experienced truffle-pickers, but the following advice are the ones you should pay closer attention to and try to implement them in your kitchen.
Truffles are best kept in a dry and clean paper towel, preferably closed in a jar and stored in the refrigerator. Moist is the biggest threat for truffles, as well as high temperatures and exposure to direct sunlight. By changing paper towels every day, you will also enable your precious mushrooms to stay fresh a bit longer, up to a week when it comes to white truffles, and around two weeks for black varieties.
If you are not planning to consume your whole shipment of truffles in that period you can also store them in a freezer for up to 3 months. Even though they will lose some of those exotic aromas, they will still serve their purpose of raising every dish to a whole new level. The good thing, though, is you don’t have to unfreeze them, it’s enough to just spread them on top of the hot or warm meal.
By following these simple advice, you will be able to enjoy those intensive aromas and seductive flavors of truffles longer, and with more pleasure.