black truffle (?) advice - questions
A dear friend gifted me today with some 'black truffles' she purchased in the mushroom section of a fairly high-end grocery. I've never had truffles before, know nothing about them (except that they're supposed to be kinda tasty) so I was excited.
They were packaged in a small plastic clamshell container, wrapped in a tissue/plastic wrap sort of thingie. The sell-by date is two weeks from today. When I opened them, they smelled really moldy and were sorta slimy. I rinsed them off and now they just smell and look like little black spongy mushrooms.
I have searched and searched, and can't find any advice on how to tell if they're okay. I'm pretty sure that moldy-slimy-spongy-after-rinsing is probably lethal, but y'all are generous with the advice (thank you!) and what the heck do I know about them.
Question # 1 - will these things kill us? Is this how they are supposed to be?
Question # 2 - I am pretty sure I know the answer to #1, so how can I mimic the flavor (on the fairly-thrifty budget) without killing anyone?
Thanks in advance for y'all's generous help! -- Pam
