We compared Charlie’s Truffled Popcorn to 479° Black Truffle & White Cheddar Popcorn, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

If you’re a truffle fan, you’ll want to read the review—not just to see the differences in the popcorn (both are delish) but to understand that not all “black Périgord truffles” are created equal.

After many years of attempts, scientists finally succeeded in cultivating the fab $1,500-a-pound fungi, which grow wild in France’s Périgord region, elsewhere.

But just as the same variety of wine grapes, coffee beans and other agricultural products have the distinct flavors of the areas in which they’re grown, so does Tuber melanosporum, the black Périgord truffle.

Read the details in the full review.
 
 
MAKE YOUR OWN TRUFFLE POPCORN

All you need are popcorn, truffle oil and truffle salt.

Toss the popcorn with a small amount of truffle oil (it’s typically potent).

Then, salt it to taste with the truffle salt.
 
 

A dusting of the truffle oil and truffle salt makes Charlie’s Truffled Popcorn an extra-luxurious snack (photo by Jerry Deutsch | © THE NIBBLE).

Gourmet cheese steak. Photo courtesy
Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery.

The recipe, courtesy of Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery, uses the Creamery’s Coupole cheese. If you can’t find Coupole, substitute a similar goat cheese. If you’re not a goat cheese fan, try Camembert or Baby Brie.

Grilled New York Strip Steaks With Coupole
& Fig Demi-Glaze

Ingredients
– ½ cup fig jam or spread
– ¾ cup Port wine
– 1 cup unsalted beef broth
– 4 New York strip steaks or sirloin steaks
– Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
– 1 Coupole or other dome or pyramid goat cheese

What’s the difference between a strip steak and a New York strip steak?

New York strip steak, New York steak, boneless strip steak, Kansas City strip, shell steak and top loin are all the same piece of meat!

Learn your cuts of beef in our Beef Glossary, one of THE NIBBLE’s most popular articles.

Also check out our Lamb Glossary and Pork Glossary.

Repurpose that basket into a crudité server: Fill it with your favorite sliced raw vegetables and whole veggies—baby carrots, cherry tomatoes and radishes, for example—along with the dip.

Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week, suggests three creamy dips:

• Quark and Fresh Tarragon Dip with Champagne vinegar and Dijon mustard
• Mascarpone and Ancho Chili Dip with cilantro, lime juice and molasses
• Fromage Blanc Greek Dip with cucumber, dill and garlic

Get the recipes.

One dip in the basket is fine and leaves more room for veggies. But it’s always nice to offer veggie-lovers a choice of two. Make one low-calorie, based on nonfat yogurt.

Turn a pretty basket into a crudité-and-dip
holder. Photo courtesy Vermont Butter &
Cheese Creamery.