Your Daily Facts about Truffles
Truffles grow in harmony with a host tree, enabling the tree to take in phosphorus while in return the truffle receives sugars enabling it to grow.
The ancient Greeks thought truffles were made when lightning hit damp soil
Truffles are mushrooms which are believed to have started growing underground to beat forest fires, drought and severe cold
Italians consider the white truffle (tuber magnatum) to be superior in taste to the black truffle (tuber melonosporum)
Pigs, trained dogs and goats are used to sniff out truffles which produce a chemical almost identical to a sex pheromone found in male pig’s saliva. Men secrete the same chemical in their underarm sweat
A fabled aphrodisiac, the black truffle’s penetrating aroma led the Epicureans to liken the scent to that of the tousled sheets of a brothel bed. In the Middle Ages, monks were prohibited from eating truffles for fear they would forget their calling.
Truffles are highly prized as food, sought after by the top chefs and restaurants around the world and thought to be the ultimate gastronomic experience.
Truffles are edible mycorrhizal fungi to the experts or underground mushrooms to everyone else.
Truffles grow in harmony with the host tree, enabling the tree to assimilate phosphorus and in return it receives sugars enabling the truffle to grow.
Truffle eating is documented as far back as the Roman Empire. In the 17th Century truffles became popular in western cuisine of the rich and noble, particularly in France.
France is the largest producer of truffles, harvesting up to 30 tonnes a year. At the end of the nineteenth century production was over one thousand tonnes!
Truffle production has declined due to poor management and lack of understanding of truffle production. Some estimates believe the market to be 50 times undersupplied.
Truffle production is now increasing due to advances in technology, allowing trees to become infected with truffle spores in a controlled environment.
All truffle tree production in France are certified by an independent agency who examines the plants under a microscope to ensure they are infected with the truffle spores. Only then do they issue certificates to the grower.
Truffles prefer alkaline soils, summer sunshine, moist conditions (but not overly so) and little competition from other fungi.