Truffle Chips on a Grazing Board, and What to Serve Beside Them

By Emily Patrikakos, Brand Executive at The Gourmet Pantry.

What you serve beside a truffle chip decides whether anyone actually tastes the truffle. The aroma is volatile and it is most of what you paid for, so a bowl parked next to the brie loses it, and so does a bowl put out at the end of the night. This is where they belong on a grazing board, what to put next to them, what to keep well away, and three ways to use them that are not a bowl at all.

The short version, if you are laying a board out this afternoon: their own bowl, at the drinks end, in the first hour, with salt and something dry and cold beside them rather than anything sweet. Everything below is why.

What is actually in a truffle chip

Hunter's Gourmet has been hand cooking potato chips since 2014, and the truffle canisters are the ones that turn up on Australian grazing tables in December. The description on the black truffle canister is all about aroma rather than content. Break the seal and the fruity, earthy smell arrives before the chip does. What it does not state is a truffle percentage, so we are not going to invent one for you. If a snack does not tell you how much truffle is in it, assume the flavour is doing the work.

That is not a complaint. Aroma is what people actually want from truffle at a party, and the black truffle and parmesan canister gets it right by giving the earthiness something to push against. Sharp, salty aged cheese holds the truffle in place, and that is the version that survives being eaten next to strong food, which is what a grazing table is.

If you want truffle you can point at, buy a condiment instead. Belazu's truffle and artichoke pesto at $12.95 is built on black truffles from Piedmont, artichokes from Puglia and aged Parmigiano Reggiano from Bologna, and the rest of our truffle products work the same way. The distinction is useful once the food is out: the chips are a flavour note, the condiments are an ingredient.

Where they belong on the board

Three rules, from packing this stuff into hampers all year and eating the samples. If you are building the whole spread, our Christmas grazing table guide covers the board itself. This is about the one canister on the end of it.

Their own bowl, at the drinks end

Aroma is the entire proposition, and aroma does not stay where you put it. Tip the chips into a shallow bowl and set it near the glasses, away from the soft cheese. A wedge of triple cream sitting beside an open canister for an hour comes out smelling of truffle, which wastes a good brie and blunts the chips at the same time.

First hour, not last

Chips are what people eat standing up, before anyone has committed to the board. An Australian December afternoon takes the crunch out of an open canister quickly, so pour half, put the lid back on, and refill about forty minutes in. That sealed canister is why these travel well inside a hamper, and it is why you should keep using it on the night.

Salt and fizz, not sweetness

Truffle sits with savoury and dry: aged hard cheese, olives, cured meat, something cold and sparkling. It does not sit with quince paste, honey or anything sweet-glazed, because sweetness and truffle aroma fight and sweetness wins. If your board leans heavily on fruit pastes, our cracker and cheese pairing guide is the better place to start, and the chips can hold the drinks table on their own.

Three ways to use them that are not a bowl

1. Crushed over soft cheese, at the last minute. Crush a small handful of black truffle chips over a wedge of something creamy just before it goes out. Crunch and aroma in one move, and a plain supermarket brie suddenly looks deliberate. Do it late, because they soften within about ten minutes on a warm day.
2. As the cracker. A hand cooked chip is thicker than a water cracker and will carry a small spoon of pesto or a smear of soft cheese without folding in half. Good for a standing crowd, less good for a seated board where people want to build their own.
3. As a crumb, once they have gone soft. Half a canister that has lost its crunch is not a loss. Crush it and scatter it over a gratin or a baked pasta for the last five minutes in the oven. Black truffle aroma does not fade with heat, it intensifies, which is the single most useful thing printed on the back of that canister.

The rest of the range, and what a canister costs

We range ten Hunter's Gourmet canisters in three groups. The Truffle Collection is the black truffle canister, the black truffle and parmesan, and a 40g black truffle canister at $4.95, which is the right size for a hamper, a stocking or a place setting. The Gold Collection is the cheese and herb end: quattro formaggi, pesto parmesan, smokehouse barbecue, and wasabi and turmeric. Then there is the hot set, chilli lime pickle, tangy hot sauce and spicy Korean gochujang, each with its heat level marked on the pack from 2.5 to 4.5 out of 5.

Every 150g canister is $12.95. Two of them and a bowl of Mr Filbert's Italian black truffle mixed nuts at $9.95 is a drinks table for a room of eight for a little under $36, which is less than one wheel of good cheese.

Worth checking before you buy: three Gold Collection product pages list gluten free, quattro formaggi, pesto parmesan and smokehouse barbecue, while the wasabi and turmeric canister, the truffle canisters and the chilli three do not carry that line in our product information. If someone at the table is coeliac, read the canister rather than trusting a blog post, ours included.

Hunter's sits in our festive entertaining essentials next to the crackers, olives and pastes that do the rest of the work on a board.

The rest of the Hunter's range, and what not to put beside truffle

The Gold Collection is the safe end of the range for a room you cannot predict. Quattro formaggi is four cheeses melted into one seasoning and reliably the first bowl to empty. Smokehouse BBQ is the vegan flavour in the line. Pesto parmesan is the basil-led one, and wasabi and turmeric is the outlier that people either love on the second chip or quietly pass along. Several list gluten free and MSG free on their product pages, though the allergen statement printed on the canister is the authority, not a website description.

The chilli line is rated out of five for heat instead of leaving you to guess. Chilli lime pickle is mild at 2.5, aged chilli with a vinegar lift. Tangy hot sauce sits at 3.5, more aromatic than fierce. Spicy Korean gochujang is 4.5 and genuinely hot, so put that one out last. Heat and truffle should not share a bowl or a corner of the table: the gochujang flattens the truffle aroma completely, and the truffle makes the chilli taste muddy. Opposite ends, or different hours.

Truffle chip questions

Do truffle chips actually contain truffle?

Our product information for the Hunter's black truffle canisters describes black truffle aroma and flavour. It does not state a truffle percentage, so we do not claim one. Truffle-flavoured snacks generally lean on aroma rather than shaved fungus, and that is fine for a party bowl. If you want truffle you can see, buy a truffle condiment and read its ingredient list.

What do you serve with truffle chips?

Salt and fizz. Dry sparkling or a cold beer, aged hard cheese, olives, cured meat, and salted nuts. Keep them away from sweet things such as fruit paste and honey, and away from delicate soft cheeses, which the aroma buries. Give them their own bowl at the drinks end of the table and put them out in the first hour.

Which Hunter's Gourmet flavour is the best?

It depends on the job. Black truffle and parmesan is the one people come back for in the lead-up to Christmas, because the cheese keeps the truffle honest. Quattro formaggi is the safest bet for a mixed room. Spicy Korean gochujang, at 4.5 out of 5 on the pack, is for people who came for heat. Buying one canister for a party, take the parmesan.

Are Hunter's chips gluten free?

Three of them say so on their own product pages: quattro formaggi, pesto parmesan and smokehouse barbecue, all from the Gold Collection. The wasabi and turmeric canister, the three truffle canisters and the three chilli flavours do not carry that line in our product information. Allergen statements printed on the canister are the authority, not a website description, so check the pack before you serve someone coeliac.

Two canisters and a bowl of nuts will hold a drinks table for an evening. Browse the Hunter's Gourmet range and pick a truffle and a cheese flavour, or send the idea to someone else's table with our Christmas hampers. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched from Geelong the same day, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.