Some truths are hard to swallow: dried spices don’t last forever, you’re storing your coffee all wrong, and there’s actually a really useful purpose for that hole in your pasta spoon (and no, it’s not for draining water). Here’s another startling truth you probably don’t want to confront: there are probably no truffles in your truffle oil.

Priceonomics calls truffle oil "a remarkably successful con." Originally, truffle oil was made with high-quality olive oil infused with black or white truffles, but today, most of the stuff is made synthetically with ingredients like 2,4-dithiapentane, the aromatic molecule that gives truffles their distinctive smell.

While some people love truffle oil, a lot of chefs despise it. Gordon Ramsey once called truffle oil one of the most "ridiculous" ingredients, and Jonathan Gold laments, "not only does [truffle oil] taste like a bad chemical version of the real thing, it’s the flavor that almost everyone now associates with truffles."