Is Truffle Salt Good For Health? Know The Benefits and Risks

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With its pungent aroma and flavor, its addition to any dish makes it instantly memorable.

Truffles have been highly regarded as a culinary delicacy since classical times.

Do you like truffles? That may be a matter of personal opinion, but many people find truffles absolutely delicious!

Truffle Salt is an easy way to add that amazing truffle flavor to any dish while seasoning at the same time.

What is truffle salt made of?

Usually it is salt and pieces of truffle, a type of mushroom. This variety of mushroom can be quite rare in North and South America, but it is a booming industry in France, exporting about a third of its truffles so the rest of the world can enjoy them.

Here are the benefits and risks of this tasty salt, plus how to choose the best truffle salt along with some delicious ways to get started today.

What is truffle salt?

Truffle salt is a seasoning salt.

What is truffle salt made of?

This seasoning contains salt along with small pieces of black and / or white truffle. If a “truffle salt” must contain pieces of real truffles.

What is a truffle and why are they so expensive?

A truffle is an edible underground mushroom. Truffles belong to the genus Tuber:

Pezizales.
Phylum Ascomycota.
Kingdom Fungi.

Truffles can vary in size from a pea to an orange.

Truffles are a high cost ingredient because they are not easy to grow.

They require very specific growing conditions; they actually live within the roots of trees (especially oak trees) so you can’t just plant a field of truffle seeds and wait for them to grow like you do so many other crops.

The most valued truffle species are:

The white winter truffle (T. magnitude).
The black winter truffle (T. melanosporum).

There are many other edible truffles, such as:

The black muscat truffle (T. brumale).
The black musk truffle (T. brumale, variety moschatum).
The Chinese black truffle (T. indicum).
The Himalayan black truffle (T. himalayense).
The black summer truffle (T. aestivum).
The scorzone black truffle (T. aestivum, variety uncinatum)
The autumnal black truffle (T. mesentericum).

What does truffle salt taste like?

The texture is earthy and spicy in taste and is often described as a musky, garlic-like flavor.

White truffle sea salt generally has a milder aroma and more subtle flavor than black truffle sea salt. Sabatino truffle salt comes from Italy and is generally made with black summer truffles.

Benefits and risks

Benefits of truffle salt

As with salt in general, not all truffle salts are created equal. You have to choose the right truffle salt if you want to reap any of its potential benefits.

The first and foremost thing is to make sure that the salt base used is of high quality, which means that it is definitely not a conventional table salt. Second, you need to choose a truffle salt that contains real whole truffle pieces, not just truffle flavored.

Is the truffle good for you?

Truffles can definitely provide impressive health benefits. Like other varieties of mushrooms, such as mushrooms, truffles contain antioxidants and flavonoids that can help ward off disease and improve overall health.

Research has shown that truffles contain therapeutic compounds with properties:

Anti-inflammatory.
Antioxidants
Antimicrobial.
Antimutagenic.
Anticancerígenas.

We are talking about some huge potential benefits right there. We know that inflammation is the root of most diseases, so the fact that truffles are anti-inflammatory is very important.

Truffles and mushrooms have also been found to have the ability to lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar, and have hepatoprotective capabilities (prevent liver damage).

When you buy truffle salt made with high-quality sea salt, you get all those amazing benefits of sea salt, which are known to include:

High content of trace minerals.
Helps prevent dehydration and balance body fluids.
Great source of vital electrolytes.
Maintain proper brain , muscle, and nervous system function.

Risks of truffle salt

As with any salt product, you should use it in moderation to keep it in the “healthy” range. If you are on a low sodium diet, you may need to avoid truffle salt or use it in very small amounts, depending on your doctor’s recommendations.

You should refrain from excessive use of salt to avoid potential health problems.

Consuming too much sodium (especially if there isn’t enough potassium to balance things out) can lead to high blood pressure in some people.

It can also lead to a worrying buildup of fluid in people with congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or kidney disease.

If your diet is too high in sodium, your kidneys excrete more water and this can lead to an electrolyte imbalance.

Other unwanted symptoms of having too much sodium in your diet include:

Frequent trips to the bathroom.
But persistent.
Fluid retention and bloating
Lethargy.
Frequent and mild headaches (due to dehydration).

Nutrition and salt of truffles

A quarter teaspoon of black truffle salt (made with pure unrefined sea salt and dried black truffles) contains approximately 190 milligrams of sodium.

Truffles are known to contain key essential nutrients, including protein, carbohydrates, and unsaturated fatty acids, but it’s hard to see that in a typical small serving size of truffle salt.

Truffle salt vs. Truffle oil

Real truffle oil is created by adding edible truffles to an oil base (usually olive oil) and allowing the flavors to infuse for several days.

While truffle salt can provide the benefits of truffle and sea salt, truffle oil offers the health benefits of truffle and the oil used to create it.

When truffle oil is made with olive oil, you can take advantage of all the benefits of olive oil when you consume truffle oil. Obviously, truffle salt does not include any olive oil benefits.

Truffle salt vs. Salt of the Himalayas vs. Sea salt vs. Common salt

High-quality truffle salt often uses an unrefined sea salt, which is great because it provides sea salt benefits. Same scenario if you buy Himalayan truffle salt then you are reaping truffle benefits along with Himalayan salt benefits.

You always want to choose a mineral-rich Himalayan salt or other beneficial unrefined sea salt over regular table salt. The same goes for truffle salt – make sure the salt is unrefined salt.

All salts originate from sea salt, but typical table salt is heated to extremely high temperatures, is ultra-refined, and stripped of all its beneficial properties, leaving you with mostly only sodium.

Additionally, generic table salt often contains unwanted additives, such as anti-caking agents and aluminum derivatives, including sodium silicoaluminate.

You also don’t want sea salt or truffle salt that lists “sodium chloride” as its main ingredient because this means it is just as refined as table salt.

Truffle salt in Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine and traditional medicine

For thousands of years, truffles have been regarded as both food and medicine. Mushrooms such as mushrooms and truffles are valued and used in Ayurvedic medicine for their ability to ground and calm the nervous system.

Mushrooms are generally recommended for all three Ayurvedic doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha).

In general, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an advocate for the plant kingdom of mushrooms, which includes truffles and medicinal mushrooms such as turkey tail and cordyceps.

In TCM, the use of medicinal mushrooms dates back to some of the earliest written medical texts on record. At least 200 species of fungi are used in TCM practices today.

There is a long history of various cultures, such as those in Africa and the Middle East, using truffles in traditional medicine practices and as a highly nutritional food.

They have even been considered a “main component of folk medicine” because they are a rich source of:

Proteins
Amino acids : methionine, cysteine, tryptophan and lysine.
Fatty acids.
Fiber.
Minerals
Vitamins
Terpenoids.
Sterols
Carbohydrates

Where to find and how to use truffle salt

Wondering where to buy truffle salt?

You can buy black truffle salt and other varieties of truffle salt at many specialty stores, health stores, some grocery stores, and online. If you’re having trouble choosing, read some truffle salt reviews online.

As with truffle oil, be sure to buy truffle salt that contains real truffles rather than just truffle flavoring. It may be a bit more expensive to get the best truffle salt, but it’s certainly worth it in terms of potential benefits and flavor.

You can use truffle salt just like you would any other salt! You just have to make sure that the flavor of the additional truffle goes well with whatever you are seasoning.

Truffle salt recipes

Here are some truffle salt recipes that you shouldn’t miss out on. Loaded with flavor and nutrition, they are sure to be delicious!

A delicious recipe is the Béarnaise Sauce: for steaks, eggs and more it would be great with a touch of truffle salt.

Other recipes where truffle salt would be a great addition or substitution for sea salt include:

Vegan Alfredo recipe.
Gluten-free eggplant bread pizza.
Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese Casserole.
Cauliflower Steak Recipe with Italian Dressing.

Interesting history and information about truffles

Truffles grow between tree roots and can be as deep as a foot (12 inches) underground.

This is exactly why it can be so difficult to find and harvest them. Some people with a good sense of smell can locate truffles without help, but most of the time truffle hunting is carried out successfully with the help of a trained dog or female pig.

Bristles are used to find this culinary delicacy because they are attracted to the aroma of truffles as they are similar to male pig pheromones.

As mentioned above, truffles are a major industry in France. They are harvested throughout this European country, but the main French truffières (truffle areas) are found in the south of France.

In recent years, the French government reforested many large, barren land areas with trees, especially oak trees, to promote truffle growth.

In French kitchens, the most prized truffle is said to be the Périgord (Tuber melanosporum). This nose is brown or black in color, rounded and covered with polygonal wart-shaped bumps.

Precautions

Store truffle salt in an airtight container in a cool, dry place to maintain its quality.

As with any salt, use truffle salt in moderation as it is naturally high in sodium.

Consult with your doctor about an appropriate daily sodium intake level if you are currently taking medication or if you are receiving treatment for an ongoing health problem, especially high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or kidney disease.

Craving excessively for salt can sometimes be a sign of an underlying medical condition, such as adrenal insufficiency or Bartter syndrome.

Final thoughts

What is a truffle salt? Real truffle salt is a combination of salt and pieces of truffle.

The best truffle salt is one made with real truffle chunks and a high-quality, refined sea salt.

Research has shown that truffles contain therapeutic compounds with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antimutagenic, and anticancer properties.