Everything about Tuber Genus totally explained
Truffles (also
USeng ) are the valuable and highly sought-after, edible
fruiting bodies of a group
subterranean ascomycete species from the
fungal genus Tuber. All truffles are
ectomycorrhizal and are therefore found in close association with trees. Strictly speaking, these are the only "true" truffles, however the term has been applied to several other genera of underground fungi around the world.
The
ascoma (fruiting body) of truffles is highly prized as a food, their smell has been described as similar to deep-fried
sunflower seeds or
walnuts, although it has also been described as "a foul aroma." Not all people are able to smell the
odor of this fungus.
Water that truffles have been soaked in can taste a bit like
soy sauce.
Brillat-Savarin called the truffle "the diamond of the kitchen" and praised its
aphrodisiacal powers. While their aphrodisiac properties may be unproven, truffles are nevertheless held in high esteem in French, northern Italian and
Istrian cooking, as well as in international
haute cuisine.
Etymology
The origin of the word
truffle appears to be the
Latin term
tuber, meaning "lump", which became
tufer- and gave rise to the various European terms:
French Truffe,
Spanish Trufa,
German Trüffel, and
Dutch Truffel. The
German word
Kartoffel ("potato") is derived from the (now archaic)
Italian tartufo (truffle) because of superficial similarities.
Biology
The
mycelia of truffles form
symbiotic relationships with the roots of several tree species including
beech,
oak,
birch,
hornbeam,
hazel and
pine. They prefer
argillaceous or
calcareous soils which are well drained and
neutral or
alkaline. Truffles fruit throughout the year, depending on the species and can be found buried between the
leaf litter and the soil.
Their growth beneath the soil surface is thought to be an adaptation to resist predation, forest fire, drought, or severe cold. Toadstools above the surface of the soil are more vulnerable to destruction.
Types
Black truffle
The
Black truffle or
Black Périgord Truffle (
Tuber melanosporum) is named after the
Périgord region in
France and grows exclusively with
oak. Specimens can be found in late autumn and winter, reaching 7cm in diameter and weighing up to 100g. Production is almost exclusively European, with
France accounting for 45%,
Spain 35%,
Italy 20%, and small amounts from
Slovenia and
Croatia. In 1900, France produced around 1,000 metric tonnes (1,100
short tons) of
Tuber melanosporum. Production has considerably diminished in the past century, and is presently around 20 metric tonnes (22 short tons) per year, with peaks at 46 metric tonnes (50 short tons) in the best years. 80% of the French production comes from south east France: upper-
Provence (
départements of
Vaucluse and
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), part of
Dauphiné (
département of
Drôme), and part of
Languedoc (
département of
Gard); 20% of the production comes from south west France:
Quercy (
département of
Lot) and
Périgord. The largest truffle market in France (and probably also in the world) is at
Richerenches in
Vaucluse. The largest truffle market in south west France is at
Lalbenque in
Quercy. These markets are busiest in the month of January when the black truffles have their highest perfume. Black truffles on these markets sell between
€200 and 600 per kilogram (
$300–$880 per pound), depending on the quantity and quality of the harvest.
White truffle
The
White truffle or
Alba Truffle (
Tuber magnatum) comes from the
Langhe area of the
Piedmont region in northern
Italy and, most famously, in the countryside around the city of
Alba. It is also found in
Croatia, on the
Istria peninsula in the
Motovun forest alongside Mirna river . Growing symbiotically with oak, hazel, poplar and beech and fruiting in autumn, they can reach 12cm diameter and 500g, though are usually much smaller. The flesh is pale cream or brown with white marbling. Like the French black truffles, Italian white truffles are very highly esteemed (
illustration, right). The white truffle market in Alba is busiest in the months of October and November. The
Tuber magnatum truffles sell between €2,000 and €4,000 per kilogram ($1350 - $2700 per pound). They produce a scent that mimics a male pig sex hormone, and for this reason, female pigs have been used historically in Europe to help find truffles. However, more recently, dogs have become preferred for truffle hunting since they can be trained to just find the truffles whereas
sows eat the truffles as soon as they find them.
The record price paid for a single white truffle was set in
December 2007, when
Macau casino owner
Stanley Ho paid $330,000 (£165,000) for a specimen weighing 1.5kg (3.3lb), discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco. One of the largest truffles found in decades, it was unearthed near
Pisa and sold at an auction held simultaneously in Macau,
Hong Kong and
Florence.
The
Tuber magnatum pico White truffle is mostly found in northern and central Italy, while the
Tuber borchi, or Whitish truffle, is found in
Tuscany,
Romagna and the
Marche. Neither of these is as aromatic as those from Piedmont.
Chinese truffle
The
Chinese truffle (
Tuber sinensis, also sometimes called
Tuber indicum) is mass harvested in
China. It resembles
Tuber melanosporum, but its taste is bland, and its texture is chewy. Due to their low price, Chinese truffles are often exported to the West, but they shouldn't be confused with
Tuber melanosporum. Some truffle exporters or delicatessen shops sell Chinese truffles into which extracts of the real
Tuber melanosporum are introduced. These truffles are often sold at a high price, marked as
Tuber melanosporum. Another type of Chinese truffle is the
Tuber himalayensis, which visually looks so much like the
Tuber melanosporum that a microscope is needed to differentiate them, but whose taste isn't as intense as the
Tuber melanosporum. The
Tuber himalayensis, however, is harvested in very small quantities in the Chinese
Himalayas, and isn't as frequently met on world markets as the
Tuber sinensis. The third type of Chinese truffle is the Chinese summer white truffle,which doesn't yet have a scientific name. This truffle shouldn't be confused with the much more expensive Italian
Tuber magnatum.
Summer truffle
The
Black Summer Truffle (
Tuber aestivum/unicinatum) thrives in northern Italy, central Europe and the UK but also grows in
Turkey and North Africa. It is highly valued for its culinary uses and costs up to $1,500 per kilogram ($670 per pound). Summer truffles don't have as strong an aroma or taste as winter truffles do. They are mainly harvested from June to November . These truffles grow in symbiosis with trees such as oaks, hazels and
beech. They can weigh up to 20-30 g, and their shape is generally round, up to 4 cm diameter.
Other species
Two lesser-used truffles include the
Black truffle (
Tuber macrosporum) and the
Scorzone truffle (
Tuber mesentericum). In the U.S.
Pacific Northwest, several species of truffle are harvested both recreationally and commercially, most notably, the
Oregon white truffles,
Tuber oregonense and
Tuber gibbosum.
Truffle-like species
The term "truffle" has been applied to several other genera of similar underground fungi. The genera
Terfezia and
Tirmania of the family
Terfeziaceae are known as the “desert truffles” of Africa and the Middle East. "Hart's truffle" is a name for
Elaphomycetaceae while
Pisolithus tinctorius, which was historically eaten in parts of
Germany is sometimes called "Bohemian truffle".
History
Antiquity
The first mention of truffles appears in the writings of
Theophrastus in the fourth century BC. In classical times their origins were a mystery which challenged many;
Plutarch and others thought them the result of lightning, warmth and water in the soil, while
Juvenal thought thunder and rain to be instrumental in their origin.
Cicero deemed them children of the earth, while
Dioscorides thought they were tuberous roots.
Italy in the
Classical Period produced two kinds of truffles: the
Tuber melanosporum and the
Tuber magnatum. The Romans, however, only used the
terfez (
Terfezia bouderi), a fungus of similar appearance which the Romans called truffles, and which is sometimes called "desert truffle". Terfez used in Rome came from
Lesbos,
Carthage, and especially
Libya, where the coastal climate was less dry in ancient times. Their substance is pale, tinged with rose. Unlike truffles, terfez have no taste of their own. The Romans used the terfez as a carrier of flavour, because the terfez have the property to absorb surrounding flavours. Indeed,
Roman cuisine used many spices and flavours, and terfez were perfect in that context.
Islam
It is narrated in the
hadith Sahih Muslim that
Islamic prophet Muhammad said "Truffles are 'Manna' which
Allah, the Exalted the Majestic, sent to the people of Israel through [Moses], and its juice is a medicine for the eyes."
Terfezia was the main truffle consumed in the Middle East historically, and
Ludovico di Varthema, in his
Travels (1503-08), wrote of great quantities of them being sold, having been harvested in the mountains of
Armenia and Turkey.
Middle Ages
Truffles were rarely used during the
Middle Ages. The only trace of truffles in
medieval cooking is at the court of the
Avignonese Papacy. The popes discovered them when they relocated to Avignon, near the producing regions of upper Provence, and they became very fond of them. Truffle hunting is mentioned by
Bartolomeo Platina, the papal historian, in 1481, when he recorded that the sows of
Notza were without equal in hunting truffles, however they should be muzzled to prevent them from eating the prize.
Renaissance and Modern Times
During the
Renaissance truffles regained popularity in Europe and were honoured at the court of King
Francis I of France. However, it wasn't until the 17th century that Western (and in particular French) cuisine abandoned "heavy" oriental spices, and rediscovered the natural flavour of foodstuffs. Truffles were very popular in parisian markets in the 1780s. They were imported seasonally from truffle grounds, where peasants had long enjoyed their secret.
Brillat-Savarin (1825) noted characteristically that they were so expensive they appeared only at the dinner tables of great nobles and kept women. A great delicacy was a truffled turkey. "I have wept three times in my life,"
Rossini admitted. "Once when my first opera failed. Once again, the first time I heard
Paganini play the violin. And once when a truffled turkey fell overboard at a boating picnic."
Cultivation
Truffles long eluded techniques of
domestication, as
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1825) noted with his characteristic skepticism:
» "The most learned men have sought to ascertain the secret, and fancied they discovered the seed. Their promises, however, were vain, and no planting was ever followed by a harvest. This perhaps is all right, for as one of the great values of truffles is their dearness, perhaps they'd be less highly esteemed if they were cheaper.
» "Rejoice, my friend," said I, "a superb lace is about to be manufactured at a very low price."
» "Ah!" replied she, "think you, if it be cheap, that any one would wear it?"
However, contrary to stubborn legends, truffles can be cultivated. As early as 1808, there were successful attempts to cultivate truffles, known in French as
trufficulture. People had long observed that truffles were growing among the roots of certain trees, and in 1808,
Joseph Talon, from
Apt (
département of
Vaucluse) in southern
France, had the idea to sow some
acorns collected at the foot of oak trees known to host truffles in their root system.
The experiment was successful: years later, truffles were found in the soil around the newly grown oak trees. In 1847,
Auguste Rousseau of
Carpentras (in
Vaucluse) planted 7 hectares (17 acres) of oak trees (again from acorns found on the soil around truffle-producing oak trees), and he subsequently obtained large harvests of truffles. He received a prize at the
1855 World's Fair in
Paris.
These successful attempts were met with enthusiasm in southern France, which possessed the sweet limestone soils and dry hot weather that truffles need to grow. In the late 19th century, an epidemic of
phylloxera destroyed much of the vineyards in southern France. Another epidemic destroyed most of the
silkworms in southern France, making the fields of
mulberry trees useless. Thus, large tracts of land were set free for the cultivation of truffles. Thousands of truffle-producing trees were planted, and production reached peaks of hundreds of
tonnes at the end of the 19th century. In 1890 there were 750 km² (185,000 acres) of truffle-producing trees.
In the 20th century however, with the growing industrialization of France and the subsequent
rural exodus, many of these truffle fields (
champs truffiers or
truffières) returned to wilderness. The
First World War also dealt a serious blow to the French countryside, killing 20% or more of the male working force. As a consequence of these events, newly acquired techniques of
trufficulture were lost. Also, between the two world wars, the truffle fields planted in the 19th century stopped being productive. (The average life cycle of a truffle-producing tree is 30 years.) Consequently, after 1945 the production of truffles plummeted, and the prices have risen dramatically. In 1900 truffles were used by most people, and on many occasions. Today, they're a rare delicacy reserved for the rich, or used on very special occasions.
In the last 30 years, new attempts for mass production of truffles have been started. Eighty percent of the truffles now produced in France come from specially planted truffle-fields. Nonetheless, production has yet to recover its 1900s peaks. Local farmers are opposed to a return of mass production, which would decrease the price of truffles. It is estimated that the world market could absorb 50 times more truffles than France currently produces. There are now truffle-growing areas in Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, North Carolina, Tennessee and the UK.
Extraction
Looking for truffles in open ground is almost always carried out with specially trained
pigs (
truffle hogs) or, more recently,
dogs. Pigs were the most used in the past, but nowadays dogs are preferred.
| Truffle Hog |
Truffle Dog |
| Keen sense of smell |
Keen sense of smell |
| Innate ability to sniff out truffles |
Must be trained |
| Tendency to eat truffles once found |
Easier to control; probably won't eat truffles |
The female pig's natural truffle radar as well as her usual intent to eat the truffle is due to a compound within the truffle similar to
androstenol, the sex
pheromone of boar saliva, to which the sow is keenly attracted. It may have been the strange attraction that pigs have to these fungi which prompted its discovery by early human populations.
In New Zealand and Australia
The first black truffles (
Tuber melanosporum) to be produced in the southern hemisphere were harvested in
Gisborne, New Zealand in 1993.
In
1999, the first Australian truffles were harvested in
Tasmania, the result of eight years of work. Trees were
inoculated with the truffle fungus in the hope of creating a local truffle industry. Their success and the value of the resulting truffles has encouraged a small industry to develop. A Western Australian venture had its first harvest in 2004, and in 2005 they unearthed a 1
kg truffle that's potentially the largest ever harvested in the southern hemisphere. Production is expanding into the colder regions of
Victoria and
New South Wales.
Culinary use
Because of their high price and their pungent taste, truffles are used sparingly. Supplies can be found commercially as unadulterated fresh produce or preserved, typically in a light
brine.
White truffles are generally served raw, and shaved over steaming buttered
pasta or salads. White or black paper-thin truffle slices may be inserted into
meats, under the skins of roasted
fowl, in
foie gras preparations, in
pâtés, or in
stuffings. Some speciality cheeses contain truffles as well.
The flavour of black truffles is far less pungent and more refined than that of white truffles. It is reminiscent of fresh
earth and
mushrooms, and when fresh, their scent fills a room almost instantly. In 2006, designer
Tom Ford released a perfume that lists
black truffle as its first
note.
Truffle oil
Truffle oil is often used as a lower cost and convenient substitute for truffles, to provide flavouring or to enhance the flavour and aroma of truffles in cooking. Most of the “truffle oil” used in the
US however, doesn't contain any truffles. The vast majority is
olive oil which has been artificially flavoured using a synthetic agent such as "
2,4-dithiapentane". Daniel Patterson reported in the
New York Times that "even now, you'll find chefs who are surprised to hear that truffle oil doesn't actually come from real truffles." Many chefs continue to use inexpensive synthetic truffle oil, considering it to be "a reasonable substitute."
Further Information
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