We've put together a little Truffle FAQ for anyone wanting to know what all the fuss is about and, hopefully, also interested in seeking out some truffles of their own. So aren't truffles really just absurdly priced mushrooms? In a sense, yes. Truffles are a type of fungus that grows on the roots of trees like oaks and beeches, drawing nutrients from the tree and developing its musky flavor.
In certain parts of the world truffles are cultivated in special fields, though for many purists they're still foraged in the wild, which is why you're going to be paying hundreds of dollars for something that most closely resembles a rock and kind of smells a little funky. Originally, foragers used pigs to scout out the goods, though their eagerness to eat the truffle has caused many regions to switch to using dogs.
In Italy, it's actually against the law to use pigs to hunt truffles. White truffles, black truffles, Alba truffles, burgundy truffles—what the what? The two most common varieties of truffle you'll encounter are the white truffle or Alba truffle and the black truffle. Most white truffle comes from, you guessed it, the city of Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy. Each autumn, the city holds the Fiera del Tartufo, where the region's bounty is celebrated, sold and consumed to much fanfare.
When a restaurant offers a "truffle supplement" more on this later you'll most likely be receiving white truffles. Black truffles are equally delicious if a little hyped. You can also use your truffles to make truffle butter , a creamy, sinful spread that goes great with so many different foods! Spoil your senses with our most exquisite tapas and wine pairing tour in Barcelona. Spoil your senses with our most exclusive food adventure.
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What is a black truffle? Photo on Pixabay. Both black and white truffles are prized for their depth and complexity of flavor. There are some differences of opinion as to which is stronger, but many people find white truffles quite robust and garlicky while the fragrance of black truffles may be amplified through cooking as the heat gives it a chance to develop.
Which you use in a recipe comes down to what other ingredients you're cooking with and what flavors you're trying to highlight. White truffle may be the funkier of the two, so keep that in mind when you're looking for dishes to add it to.
Truffle oils are popular ways to consume these unique mushrooms, but cooking with truffles is simple. Just rinse them well to clear all the dirt away, slice them and saute them in a little oil or vegan butter. Chefs suggest only lightly cooking white truffles as too much heat can easily destroy the nuanced flavors and texture.
Truffle oil, on the other hand, can stand up to the heat. White truffles do not have a very long shelf life. Five days may be all you can get out of them after they're harvested. If you can get fresh white truffles, you should really use them as quickly as possible. Treating the truffles with antibiotics eliminated the scent molecules, and the researchers reported that the ability to make them appears to be common to all the truffle bacteria they discovered, suggesting that the molecules may be a by-product of some important biological process.
The pungency of truffles isn't just for our entertainment — for the truffles themselves, it may be a matter of life or death. Scientists think that the fact that animals can smell the mushrooms underground and will dig them up suggests that being eaten is a way for the truffles to ensure that their spores are spread far and wide, in the faeces of their devourers.
Trying to culture truffles in a lab has, so far, been an impossible task Credit: Science Photo Library. Could it be that some of what animals smell is actually from the microbes, not from the truffles themselves? It's already been shown that fruit flies are drawn to fruit not because of the fruit's own smell, but rather because of scents made by yeast living on its surface.
It's a fascinating idea. The authors of the review end by saying that to really understand which molecules come from where, however, researchers will need to obtain truffles completely free of microbes. That is a tall order: No wild-harvested mushrooms will do, and culturing truffles in the lab is, sadly, still beyond us.
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