Frozen Black Truffles for the Trade

Frozen black truffles exist for one reason: the fresh product is available for about four months, and kitchens need it for twelve.

Tuber melanosporum frozen during the season keeps its aroma for cooked and blended dishes, and travels without a timed cold chain.

This page is for trade buyers who need supply outside the fresh window.

Four fresh months against twelve months of demand

The strength of fresh black truffle is that it is seasonal, and that is also its weakness. From May to November there is no fresh Spanish product at all.

The derived formats close that gap: preserved, sliced and frozen. Of the three, freezing is the one that stays closest to fresh, and the one the grower names when he is asked what happens to truffle that will be eaten later — frozen in season, it can be sold and used through the rest of the year.

It is also what a grower falls back on when the wholesale market drops. When prices collapse, selling stops being worth it, and the harvest is frozen rather than given away.

What gets frozen, and at what point of ripeness

Freezing for consumption is done by packing plants, not on the plantation: the grower supplies the truffle, the packer does the processing. Spanish processors sell it whole, in pieces or sliced, selected at its point of ripeness between January and March, with nothing added. The typical buyer is restaurants and distribution, which gain availability all year without the pressure of the season.

At the other end of the scale, the lowest grade is bagged and frozen for aroma extraction, the last link in the chain.

Frozen black truffle in the kitchen

It is for cooked and blended preparations: sauces, stuffings, butters, anything where the piece is grated or chopped in.

It does not replace a fresh piece shaved raw at the table. A kitchen that needs both uses fresh in season and frozen the rest of the year.

Ordering frozen black truffle by the kilo

Frozen formats are made during the season from the same harvest as the fresh product, and stock ships after it.

Tell us the format, the volume and the months you need covered. Quotations are given against what was frozen this season.

• Format: whole, pieces or sliced.
• Volume per order or per year.
• Destination, confirmed before anything is shipped.

Frozen, preserved or peelings

Frozen keeps closest to fresh but needs a freezer at the other end. Preserved formats ship and store as ordinary goods. Peelings are the cheapest aromatic raw material for anything blended.

Related trade pages:

• Black Truffle Wholesale — Direct from the Grower
• Preserved Black Truffle: Peelings, Pieces & Frozen
• Black Truffle Pieces: Aroma Without the Shape
• Black Truffle Peelings for the Trade