Sensational Sea Truffle: From Salt and Powder to Pasta & Butter
Love truffles but hate paying the high prices? Me too! Did you know that New England is home to one of the tastiest, cheapest and most delicious truffles of all? One that is incredibly abundant, easy to identify and a breeze to harvest – no fancy dog or pig required!
Amazing, right?! It is known as ‘sea truffle’ and it grows in heaps along coastal coves from Maine to Connecticut. Naturally salty with a deep, unctuous umami flavor, it’s hairy texture and brownish-red color may not seem appetizing at first. But, added fresh to soup stock or dehydrated for seasoning mixes and you will instantly understand why it’s called truffle of the sea.
How to Identify Sea Truffle
Sea truffle, or Polysiphonia lanosa, is a cinch to identify. Why? Because it grows off another super tasty seaweed called ‘rockweed.’ Foraging double win! Rockweed, or Ascophyllum nodosum, is a brown seaweed in the kelp family. Its color ranges from dark green to yellow green or golden. Growing in the mid to low tidal zones, rockweed attaches tenaciously to rocks and ledges with the help of a natural glue secreted by a discus-shaped holdfast.
Their stems have large air bladders located at intervals along their length. The air bladders appear as egg shaped bulges which help float the seaweed vertically towards sunlight. Once you have located a solid colony of rockweed, look through the plant for a dark reddish-brown, coarsely haired mass. This is your sea truffle! In New England, I would guesstimate about 50% of rockweed has sea truffle attached.
Best picked in spring and autumn for peak intensity, one sniff of a package of dried sea truffle can fool you into thinking you have snagged a bag of truffles. Only the smallest amount is required to season or enhance a dish.
Harvest sustainably by simply cutting the heaviest laden strains of rockweed-mixed-sea truffle a few inches above the plant’s root. Before heading home, fill your bucket with salt water to cover its contents. This will keep everything fresh.
Preparing Your Harvest
Once home, separate the rockweed from the sea truffle. Rockweed has many uses, from garden fertilizer to quick pickled, as steam toppers for mussels or lobster bakes, or dehydrated into powder for seasonings. But, we are here to talk about the real star – sea truffle!
Sea Truffle Salt Recipe
Soak the sea truffle in cold water, gently swishing it every so often. Change the water every 5 to 10 minutes to encourage any little sea bugs or sand granules out of its body. Do this at least 3-4 times. Pat dry with a paper towel. Place evenly on dehydrator racks and set the temperature to 110 degrees for 3 hours. If you do not have a dehydrator, set your oven to the lowest setting (usually 200 degrees) and cook for an hour and a half, or until crispy.
You can use the dehydrated truffle as is and sprinkle it over meats, stews, soups, really whatever you think will taste good! Or, you can throw it into a blender with equal parts coarse salt and pulse a few times for an insanely tasty seasoning mix. Whether whole, powdered or mixed with salt, it should keep in your cupboard for at least 2 years.
Other Ways to Enjoy Sea Truffle
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