Priced between $900 and $3000 per pound, truffles are one of the delicacies of haute cuisine. Truffles are fungi that grow underground, usually near the roots of certain tree species, and their hunting and cultivation has a long and interesting history.
The earliest mention of truffles is found in neo-Sumerian inscriptions describing the Amorites’ eating habits. These truffles were not European forest truffles, but desert truffles, which are tasteless in comparison. Desert truffles are also what the Romans ate. Plutarch and others thought that truffles came about by an interaction of lightning, warmth, and water in the soil.
Desert truffles are still eaten in the Middle East today, but the most well known truffles are the black truffle of France and the white truffle of Italy and Croatia.
Truffles were not popular in Europe during the Middle Ages. The Christian church was suspicious of their reputation as an aphrodisiac and Muslims also looked down on them.
This view of truffles changed with the Avignon papacy and the Renaissance. In 1481 papal historian Bartolomeo Platina mentioned the use of sows to hunt truffles. Truffles were honoured at the court of Francis I of France. A truffled turkey became a great delicacy. Apparently Italian composer Rossini once said, “I have wept three times in my life… 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.”
In the late 1700s and early 1800s truffles were first cultivated successfully, by transplanting seedlings or acorns from trees where truffles grew. In the late 1800s epidemics that killed off vineyards and silkworms made room for many truffle groves in southern France. After World War II truffle production plummeted and prices rose.
In order to promote the Italian white truffle, which did not have the international popularity of black truffles, in 1949 Giacomo Morra began sending the best truffle of the year to celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Pope Paul IV. His campaign was a success as high end restaurants began importing white truffles.
In the 1970s cultivation became popular again, though it is very expensive and slow to begin production. Cultivation of French black truffles is now taking place in other parts of the world, such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. In addition native truffles are harvested commerically in Oregon.
These days dogs rather than pigs are used to sniff out truffles. Sows are naturally attracted to truffles because they have a compound similar to a sex pheromone found in boar saliva, but the sows will dig up and eat the truffles. On the other hand dogs must be trained to sniff out truffles, but they are not interested in eating them.
In recent years Chinese truffles, which do not have the quintessential aroma of European truffles but are much cheaper, have been fraudulently sold around the world. Fake truffle oil is also common.
Now the question is, have you ever tried a truffle?
Sources
- “Truffle” via Wikipedia
- “Truffles: everything you need to know” via trufflespecialty.com
- “The untold truth of truffles” via Mashed
- “The Trouble With Truffles” by Rebecca Rupp via National Geographic
- “The Most Pungent Prize: Hunting the Truffle” by Alastair Bland via Smithsonian Magazine