FRESH TRUFFLES & HOW TO USE THEM

Truffles are underground fungi that have a mycorrhizal relationship with the host tree where they grow. They flourish slightly beneath the surface of the earth, growing on the roots of different trees. Truffles are irresistible because their aroma is composed of chemicals that mimic mammalian reproductive pheromones. Eating, even sniffing a truffle brings about euphoric dizziness that can be truly addictive.They are expensive because they are difficult to cultivate, hard to find in the wild, incredible to eat and in high demand. There are lots of species, but the two most sought-after are the powerfully flavourful Tuber Magnatum Pico, (the Italian white Alba truffle), and the Tuber Melanosporum Vitt. (the Périgord black truffle).

Buy it now

HISTORY

The unravelling of some of the biological mysteries of truffles has been paralleled by dramatic growth in their culinary stature, from being a food source for peasants in the dark ages to become an obsession in higher circles of society, well known French gourmand Jean Brillat-Savarin (d.1826) hailed them as the ‘jewel of all cookery'.
The early 1800s may be referred to as the ‘golden age of truffles’, particularly in France where a heightened appreciation for them was more readily matched by supply than at any other time in history. A recipe in Mrs Beeton’s first cookbook (1861) listed among ingredients a ‘dozen fine black truffles’ such was the abundance at the time.


The popularity of truffles reached a peak in the late 19th century. Brillat-Savarin noted that merchants, aware of their popularity stimulated the market by paying good prices for truffles at the source and using the fastest transport available to send them to Paris. With a steady market demand then came the desire to increase supply, attention turned to the truffle harvesters holy grail - artificial systematic cultivation.

Buy it now

CULTIVATION

The first step to cultivation was discovered by chance by planting acorns from oak trees infected with truffles in nearby land containing siliceous, stony earth. A few years later the first cultivated truffles appeared from under the young oak trees. By 1890 there were 750 square kilometres of truffières in France.

The method of cultivating truffles this way was still favoured up until the middle of the 20th century, however, the technique was badly flawed, the seedlings were overrun with insects, pests, and faster-growing contaminating fungi. By 1960 the collapse of the European truffle industry was well underway.

By the end of the 1960s, French and Italian scientists had devised methods of for producing truffle-infected plants under controlled conditions in greenhouses by inoculating plants with pureed truffle, truffle spores, cultures, or sections of infected root. Eventually, their perseverance was rewarded and in December 1977 the first cultivated truffles using this method were harvested in France. Truffle cultivation is where almost all of the world’s black truffle harvest comes from, France, Italy, Spain and Australia being the main exports of fresh Black Truffles. 

Buy it now

SCIENCE

Botanically, the truffle is a fruiting body that develops on mycelium, the fine web of filaments that bonds itself to the roots of different trees known as mycorrhiza. Truffles are host specific and the relationship is symbiotic, both parties benefit, though, in the long run, it suits the guest rather than the host.

While lesser European truffle species go for beech and fir, the Périgord Black Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) prefers oak, and lime, while Poplar and Hazel appeal more to the Alba white (Tuber Magnatum Pico.) While the former like air and light and forms its own burnt patch under its host, the second needs semi-shade and the presence of bushes to provide a shady understory. Both need chalky soil, marginal land, the right degree of rainfall, and peace and quiet, the white is ecologically pickier than the black and takes longer to come to maturity and fruit. Of these two big hitters of the truffle trade, only the Périgord black is in successful cultivation.

Buy it now

THE HUNT

To track down a truffle, a truffle hunter or ‘triolao’ requires the help of a dog with an excellent sense of smell, trained to recognise the scent of the fungus.

Truffle hunters must have a special permit for which they pay an annual fee. They must also follow harvesting calendars for the different Tuber species, which vary for every region where the truffles can be found.

When a dog smells a truffle in the forest, it notifies the hunter, who uses a special blade to extract it with great delicacy. To allow the formation of new rootlets, it is of utmost importance that the hunter replaces any first removed. Then hopefully a new fruiting body will form.

Buy it now