“Truffles, the Mozart of mushrooms.”

Gioacchino Rossini, Italian Composer(1792 – 1868)

Exotic, seductive, precious and hugely desirable. The appeal of truffles is undeniable. These mysterious mushrooms are as elusive as they are captivating and their timeless allure and rarity make them the culinary equivalent of gold.

But what are they exactly?

Truffles are the fruiting bodies of a subterranean mushroom, a hypogean fungus, called mycelium. Belonging to the order of tuberales (ascomycetes), they develop a mycorhizic symbiosis with ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ….

..Truffles are actually underground mushrooms which grow on the roots of certain hardwood trees, most commonly oak, willow, poplar, chestnut and hazelnut.

But before you go rushing out and digging up the neighbour’s weeping willow, remember truffles need 3 essential conditions: the right soil, the right climate and the right tree. These elements all come together in certain areas of North and Central Italy.

How do you find them?
Truffles are located by their smell and pigs have the best “nose” for them. The problem is, when they find one they tend to wolf it down and let’s face it, taking a sounder of swine into the woods for a few hours can be a bit tricky, not to mention messy.

Dogs are now much more popular, despite the fact they have no natural ability to smell truffles! Truffle hunters used to train their dogs by hiding pieces of Gorgonzola around the place for them to dig out, nowadays some truffle oil on bread does the job a bit better. The most widely used breed is the Lagotto Romagnolo, chosen for their agility, digging prowess and dedication to the job.

Once trained, the hunter and faithful pooch will head off in the early hours armed with secret notebook akin to a treasure map with frenzied scrawlings of hidden paths, number of paces, the lay of the land, the soil conditions, the weather conditions and even the lunar cycle. (Some say truffles always grow again in the same place and under the same moon and that the best day for hunting truffles is the 5th morning after the full moon! Others say that’s nonsense..).

Types of Italian Truffles

Truffles can be divided into two main categories, black and white.

The White Truffle (Tartufo Magnatum Pico)

Season: Sept – end Dec
Il Re dei Re! The King of Kings, the white truffle. The most famous and delectable of them all and by far the most expensive! Truffle prices vary on a daily basis and even have their own bourse where Italian white truffle prices can reach £6000/kg.

Use: It is served in thin slivers on many first courses (eg. pasta dishes, risotto) and main courses (white or red meat, fish, egg dishes, potatoes etc.)

Black Winter/ Precious Black/ Perigord (Tuber Melanosporum)

Season: Dec – mid March
This black truffle comes under various names including the sweet rare truffle, truffle of Norcia, Truffle de Perigord and, after the white truffle, is considered the most valuable and desirable. Renowned for its complex, slightly sweet notes and earthy undertones, it’s the most aromatic of the black truffles. Prices can reach £1500/kg for fully mature, whole, round pieces.

Use: It has many uses in international cuisine. Like the white, it can be shaved directly onto just cooked dishes of pasta, rice, meat, fish, potatoes and omelettes. It can also be added at the end of cooking so the heat will bring out all its flavour.

The Summer truffle (Tuber Aestivum)

Season: March – September
This black truffle is found in relatively large quantities and is widely used in preserved form or infused into oils, butters and creams. Prices vary from £80 – £300/Kg

Use: Best when added whole during cooking (like a rather expensive stock cube!).

Autumn Black (Tuber Uncinatum)

Season: End Sept – end Jan
Another black truffle, quite similar to the summer truffle but has a more decisive, intense aroma and flavour. Fresh prices can vary between £ 200 – £ 800/Kg

Use: great with tagliatelle, frittate or shaved onto potatoes.

The Spring White or Bianchetto Truffle (Tuber Borchii Vitt.)

Season: Feb – May
Cheaper than the white truffle, it has a strong musky/garlic-like aroma, which adds its own unique depth to many dishes. Price £ 250 – £ 600/Kg

Use: Can be used during cooking or shaved directly at the table. Try it with Polenta or on Bruschetta.

More to read? – How about our Guide to Preserved Truffles Products

Looking for fresh Italian truffles? check out our service here.

Here you can find our vast range of delicious preserved truffles.

Truffles are usually classified mainly based on their appearance, smell, and taste. Found in a variety of regions around the world, many are commonly known by their location rather than their technical name. Their value varies depending on their rarity and specific aromatic qualities; the rarest are the most expensive food in the world.

The French black or Périgord truffle, Tuber melanosporum, is prized for its aromatic and fruity qualities. When fresh, it has a brown-black exterior with white veins on the inside. It ranges in size from a pea to an orange, and weighs up to 2.2 pounds (1 kg). These truffles are found in the Périgord region of southwestern France.

Tuber AestivumVitt ….Summer truffle or Scorzone … is harvested from mid-April to September. The peridium of this whisummer truffle is very dark it’s flesh, a light brown, and it’s taste and aroma are similar to those of
Tuber melanosporum …the French black or Périgord truffle …is prized for its aromatic and fruity qualities

My array of truffles collections ….Left to right ..white Truffle Oil (which I used for my Mushrooms Cappuccino with Truffle Oil); (top) Truffle Purée; Tuber Aestivum Vitt; Truffle Sauce; Black Truffle Oil ..bought these entire pack on one of our travels and I think, if I’m not mistaken, it is at a duty free Delicatessen at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Buck is incredibly special (and lucky! ;P ) and I have problems spoiling him, so I wanted to give him a really awesome birthday dinner to go along with the birthday cake. This was to help make up for his actual birthday which he spent TA-ing and running last-minute physics experiments (Read: Not fun!).

I decided to go with some of our favorite foods (duck and risotto!) plus something he’s been wanting to try and the real star of the meal. It goes by a number of names that range from generic to super specific (some of which you may or may not know of!): truffle, black truffle, black winter truffle, French black winter truffle, Perigord truffle, tuber melanosporum, etc…

But yes, you read right. A Perigord truffle! And there’s proof of it down below!

1 oz Perigord Truffle

Here are some interesting things/fun facts about truffles that I discovered:

1. Chocolate truffles were originally named after the fungi truffles due to their lumpy shapes. Though I have to say it’s not quite true anymore, chocolate truffles are perfectly spherical nowadays…unless I’ve made them. In that case, chocolate truffles really take after their namesakes.

2. Truffle Hunters: Truffles are mostly found using a Lagotto Romagnolo (see left). Isn’t it adorable?! It looks like the snuggles laundry bear in dog form! However, hogs are also still used to find truffles, but the hounds are preferred since the hogs eat too many truffles. Female hogs are particularly attracted to the scent of truffles due to its similarity to a pheromone produced by boars.

3. Fresh truffles will begin to rapidly lose flavor around the 10th day following their harvest.

4. Truffles should not be cooked, the volatile compounds that give the truffles their aroma are destroyed by heat.

5. Fun fact from personal experience: the aroma of a truffle wrapped in a paper towel put into a  brown paper bag within a zip lock bag and sealed off in an airtight container (this is proper storage by the way!) can still be detected 2-3 feet away. That’s four layers of protection. It really is that pungent.

6. Buying a truffle also gives you an excuse to buy a chocolate shaver. Now, I can attempt to make chocolate curls!

Anyhow, enough with the chocolate and back to the fungus. After searching high and low across the internets, I decided to make a trip to Urbani. You can order all sorts of truffle products online from them, but since I work in Manhattan, I figured I could get a fresher truffle by going to its headquarters. I was not disappointed. Once I got my bearings in the pristine white museum-like sales office/showroom, I was brought to the kitchen that housed the truffles. The salesman brought out three different trays of truffles from the refrigerator and was a great help in selecting a truffle suited for the occasion. The truffles were segregated into three trays by virtue of aesthetics. Since I was not going to show the truffle off, I opted for a not so beautiful truffle at the price of $99 per oz. That’s a pretty sweet deal for truffles.  Not only was the pricing reasonable (as reasonable as you can get for truffles), the salesman told me that the truffles had just come in the previous night from Europe. How awesome is that?

After  spending a good half hour at Urbani, I left with the truffle pictured above,  a jar of white truffle honey, a jar of black truffle honey, and truffle butter. My favorite product was the white truffle honey; it’s simply sublime with brie cheese on water crackers. The truffle butter was also fantastic as a finishing butter for the risotto. With regards to the actual truffle, the scent was tantalizing but the overall flavor was just too much for me; I found it to be overbearing and it completely masked the other flavors in the mushroom risotto and the duck! If something can overpower the flavor of duck, you know it’s strong. That’s just my opinion. Buck on the other hand loved the truffle. You’ll never know until you try one! And I’m more than willing to give it another shot and I’d really like to try a white truffle.

Whether or not you decide to try the truffle, you should most definitely try out the recipe below and try to follow the pictures for this cooking adventure! Enjoy!

ROASTED DUCK
Approximately 2 hours cook time

Ingredients: 

1-  4-6lb duck
Seasoning of choice (we went along with our Old Faithful aka. McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning)

Procedure: 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Clean your bird and remove the miscellaneous pieces. (Be sure to keep an eye out for any goodies. Buck and I got a liver!)
3. Boil a pot of water and pour over the duck. This will tighten its skin so it will get nice and crispy!
4. Dry off the bird and season it to your heart’s desire.
5. Score the bird for maximal fat drainage.
6. Cook the duck breast side up for 1 hour.
7. Flip the duck and cook for another hour in the oven/until the skin is golden brown. (After the flip, you can pour on some melted butter to really get a nice crispy skin. We chose not to because duck is incredibly fatty already and doesn’t really need any extra fat.)

Some context about the Oregon white truffle: unlike its gilled above-ground mushroom cousins, the golden nuggetlike Tuber oregonense is an underground fungus that grows symbiotically within the root systems of native Northwest host trees like the doug fir. Prized for the complex aroma it infuses into everything from marbled beef to scrambled eggs (a winemaker I interviewed described its smell as “kind of like gasoline, like the plastic on your grandmother’s couch”), the fungus arrives at its odiferous apogee sometime between December and February, when perfectly ripe Oregon truffles appear on menus at high-end restaurants all across the Pacific Northwest. For regional foragers, the white truffle’s pay dirt, commanding $16 an ounce, or nearly $100 a pound. But that’s still peanuts compared to the premiums California chefs (who often turn their noses up at Oregon truffles) at five-star restaurants like the French Laundry will pay for imported European truffles like the French black (Tuber melanosporum, a.k.a. the Perigord truffle), which fetches $70 an ounce ($1,100 a pound) and the Italian white (Tuber magnatum), currently selling for $319 an ounce at buy.com (that’s, cha-ching, $5,104 a pound!). Which explains the recent proliferation of truffieres, truffle plantations, nationwide. Credit Oregon truffle guru Charles Lefevre, a Eugene mycologist who founded New World Truffieres in 2003 after he figured out a way to cultivate European truffles domestically by inoculating the root systems of oak and hazelnut saplings with French black truffle spores. Since then, entrepreneurs from the Great Smoky Mountains to Napa Valley have been plowing under pastureland and vineyards and planting Lefevre’s truffle trees. And since truffle trees take seven years or more to bear fruit, America appears to be on the cusp of a domestically grown European truffle gold rush. Which is where the dogs come in.

Although some French truffle farmers still prefer to use pigs (which are attracted to Perigords because they smell like a sow in heat; yum!), in Italy, truffle farmers have been using an obscure breed of working dog, the Lagotto Romagnolo, to harvest truffles since the late 16th Century. I’ve read that there are fewer than 500 of these dogs in the United States but once the U.S. truffle industry matures, expect the Lagotto Romagnolo to eclipse the labradoodle as the next hot dog (order yours now; breeders are standing by!). The 15 registered U.S. Lagotto Romagnolo breeders sell pups for as much as $3,500 (on par with the ‘doodle) while fully trained truffle dogs command upwards of $9,000. Jim Sanford, a former elephant trainer from the Oregon Zoo, now works as the Lagotto Romagnolo trainer/breeder/handler at Blackberry Farm, a 4,200-acre culinary-themed destination resort in the Great Smoky Mountains (Travel + Leisure recently deemed it the best in North America) that has planted 128 of Lefevre’s black truffle trees. Jim was the lead instructor at the Oregon truffle dog seminar, and got choked up when he handed over the leash of a Lagotto Romagnolo that he had raised and trained  in Tennessee over the past year for two entrepreneurs with a nascent truffiere in Napa Valley, who had come to Oregon that weekend to take possession of their truffle-hunting stud dog, and learn from the truffle dog master. “Did I mention to you that I don’t want to let this dog go,” Sanford reiterated to the new owners. “You are getting a phenomenal dog.” Not that you can imagine a lifelong animal trainer like Jim Sanford, a guy who could stare down a bull elephant, shedding a tear (much less cracking a smile) from the gruff canine professional persona he cultivates in this photo I snapped of him with Tom, Blackberry Farm’s celebrity truffle dog, at the vineyard:

Instructor Jim Sanford with North America's top truffle dog, Tom (the hat says "Lagotto Romagnolo")

Jim’s actually quite a funny guy. When Tom, a few minutes later, began nosing the behind of that walking shag carpet of a Bouvier des Flandres standing just behind Jim in the above photo, the trainer sharply corrected his dog and apologized to the owner of the Bouvier, “He’s an intact male dog and sniffin’ butts is just what he’s got to do. Now who here doesn’t like to sniff butts?!”

The second instructor was Deb Walker, a search and rescue dog specialist from Roseburg, Ore., who trotted out a showdog-quality standard poodle named Tucker, her first truffle dog, who represents a new direction, and perhaps the future, for Walker’s K9-Behavior Company. Check out Tucker’s snappy vest:

Instructor Deb Walker with a statuesque Tucker

The third instructor, D. Glenn Martyn, executive director of the Hearing Dog Program in San Francisco, who trains hearing and mobility service dogs, brought along an ebullient English Springer Spaniel named Ghillie. Leashed to the 18 novice truffle hunters was a menagerie of breeds, including three Lagottos, retired police dogs and labs, even a wiener dog and, improbably, a teacup-sized chihuahua. After Jim introduced the instructors and Tom as “Hands-down the finest truffle dog in North America” (one season, Tom unearthed 200 pounds of domestic French black truffles at a Tennessee truffiere, which amounted to the entire U.S. crop), he delivered a brief lecture about the Oregon truffle and announced that “I’m gonna take Tom down here and see if he can hit on a few truffles.” We followed Jim down a muddy embankment, ripping through blackberry brambles, and entered a dense forest. Shafts of sunlight filtered through breaks in the canopy and the air was pungeant with the earthy smell of wet dirt and hummous and decaying vegetation. Glenn Martyn let Ghillie off leash, and the dog bolted to the nearest tree and began digging, scoring the first truffle hit. Watch this video of Ghillie to appreciate the exuberance and absolute focus that a well-trained scent-detection working dog brings to the job (he’d make a fantastic peanut dog!):

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Practically every dog began unearthing truffles, even the wiener dog and the chihuahua, which redeemed itself as something of a truffle dog savant. But it was clear that several centuries of selective breeding gave the Lagotto Romagnolo an instinctual advantage. In one far corner of the forest, I came across Bill Collins, a clinical psychologist from the VA in San Francisco. He was wearing a beret and his knees were covered in mud and  he was speaking in Italian to a Teddybearlike Lagotto named Rico, who was furiously digging at the base of a giant fir tree. Watch this 10-second clip of Rico digging for truffles:

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A couple years ago, Collins, a gourmand who hosts eight-course truffle-themed dinner parties, flew to his native Sicily and purchased Rico from an Italian truffle dog trainer, thinking he’d take up a new hobby. Then realized he had found another lifeline for the soldiers he counsels. Rico’s more than a truffle dog, he’s a therapy dog, tagging along with Bill on counseling visits with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bill envisions truffle dog training and foraging as part of the healing process, and potentially a career path, for veterans recently returned from Afghanistan and Iraq who are struggling to reassemble the pieces of their war-shattered lives here at home. That’s an admirable goal, and I wish Bill luck.

On the long drive back to Portland from Turner, I phoned my college roommate, a high school teacher with a wife and two kids in Los Angeles, who had called for our once-a-year check-in while I was truffle hunting in the forest, and I discovered something I hadn’t known about my lifelong friend: his daughter has a severe peanut allergy, and carries an EpiPen wherever she goes. Until now, I thought I was insulated from peanut allergy, training puppies that will assist children I’ve never met. I didn’t actually know anybody who daily confronted that life/death struggle. Or so I thought. As Angel Service Dogs CEO Sherry Mers once told me: “This isn’t going away. Pretty soon there won’t be anybody who doesn’t know somebody with a life-threatening peanut allergy.”

All too true.

The booking team at Alain Ducasse were only too helpful on my telephone `table enquiry`.They managed to squeeze me on to one of their last places for dinner, a 6.30 table for two but we had to eat our meal and vacate by 9.30 , shouldn`t be a problem  so let`s do it .Finally, after months of planning time for a flash visit to London we were able to dine at the last of the four three star restaurants that had eluded us for quite a while. So here`s my report of my experience at reputedly one of the worlds most exclusive Michelin 3 starred restaurants , Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester on Park lane in London. I felt obliged to write a little more than i usually write about restaurant visits just to inform of both the good and not so good highlights of our dinner that evening.

Both my dining companion for the evening, Lord Bell of Northumberland and I were delighted to secure the table so the trip was quickly put together, A ten hour round journey from West Cumbria , an overnight stay in the city,  and then a return home next day was assembled quickly , all to sample the delights of the  Dorchester and the highly `house` recommended “Tuber melanosporum experience”. I understood that the black diamond of the Perigord was a highly perfumed gastronomic delight of the finest calibre so to have a full tasting menu consisting of truffle variations on almost every course was certainly one that the memories of a lifetime would be based upon.

The evening set off well , we arrived thirty minutes early and took the time to marvel at the wonderful sights and decor of the ground floor lounge.We were entertained by the amazing pianist whilst enjoying our classic mojito cocktails (£18 each ) and pre meal olives, nuts and wasabi nibbles.The restaurant opened just after 6:30 and we were escorted to our table by one of the very pleasant front of house staff.

Bread arrived shortly afterwards, was basic, world class in every way.Warm , freshly baked and full of wonderful flavours.We were also spoiled for choice with the large selection of varieties available.

The menus arrived for our perusal but for us there was no choice , it had to be the Truffle tasting ` Menu d`hiver` .The Ducasse tasting menu looked superb but as we were in one of the worlds finest restaurants then there was only one menu to go for on the night.The Sommelier informed us that the wine pairing to match the truffle menu wouldn`t disappoint ( £95 ), and it didn`t.It was a great way for me to start learning about the better wines of the world. It hit the mark on our every course.Carefully matched to the food , well sourced and delivered by an enthusiastic happy young gentleman , very keen to offer to us a wonderful mini education in fantastic wines.

Our first course was the Langoustine , perfectly cooked , very fresh and topped with a caviar that
complimented well.The rich nage married perfectly and delivered lots of flavour from what tasted like roasted shells, it was very enjoyable indeed.

Second course was the Ravioli , our first taste of the `black truffle`.I noticed here straight away that i couldn`t smell any truffle aroma eminating from the warm food.I tried a piece of truffle on its own – it had no taste at all. The consome on the other hand was a beautiful duck consomme that delivered rich flavours with the melting foie gras encased in the pasta.The pasta was ever so slightly undercooked and came with quite a bite to it ,ever so slightly off al-dente.We explained to our Maitre`d that we couldn`t taste the truffle and i then asked if it was fresh or preserved truffle ,he apologised and informed us that he would enquire within the kitchen.He also confidently told us “Just wait until your next course if you want to experience truffle”.

Our next course arrived and `wow`, we saw truffle , lots and lots of it.Unfortunately our excitement soon diminished when we discovered that the large amount of truffle on and around the wonderful scallop was
infact totally tasteless and had absolutely zero truffle flavour, it was simply a texture.I commented to my dining companion that if we were to eat this dish blindfolded then we wouldn`t have known that the truffle existed in
the dish.The huge king scallop on the other hand was perfectly cooked , sweet , caramelised and indeed a delight to eat with the vegetable accompaniments.

At this point the Maitre`d returned to our table , all smiles and asking how the dish was.I explained that it was  a lovely dish to eat, but on this occasion the truffle needn`t have been there.He explained to us that the truffle was infact a fresh one from Perigord….`but`unfortunately as it was the end of the season the truffles were far less flavoursome and nowhere near the flavour and perfume of what they should be in December and January.At this point we seriously questioned as to why a truffle tasting experience should be offered at the end of March and at the end of truffle season.
Over the years i`ve been led to believe that the perigord truffle is the king of the black truffles and dominates the air in every space into which it is exposed.Looking at the photos of the close up truffle shots below it leads me to wonder if it was even tuber melanosporum after all.There`s every chance of late season `Moss truffles` finding their way into the truffle markets.They look similar from the skinside but whereas the melansporum variety appears to be a slate grey and white veins inside , the moss truffles have a reddish tinge to the internals….very similar to the ones on our scallop dish.I`ll stand totally corrected and apologetic if my detective work is leading down the wrong path here, it`s only a hunch.

The truffle on the left is a “Moss truffle” ( Tuber Brumale ).In Europe it`s also known as the “winter truffle”, but can be very easily confused by its appearance and identical time of harvest to that of the “French Perigord” truffle ( That`s the one on the right ). Though the Moss truffle resembles that of The French Perigord truffle, it has a slightly more delicate skin.The sooner the Moss truffle is eaten, the better it tastes, as with the
majority of European truffles. The Moss truffle has a subtle flavor of freshly cut moss…hence the name.Our truffle at Ducasse was the one in the middle and as i said above, they`re all too easily mistaken together in the same basket at market.Anyways….Onwards and upwards.

Our next course was the Sea bass, now this was an exceptional piece of fish , perfectly cooked , crisp outer flesh , moist interior and had the delicate taste of a wild specimen.Once again ,very generous amount of truffle `texture` but no flavour.The sauce was `old school classic ` and well made.

On to the main course and my first ever tasting of the legendary beef “Rossini”.I cant believe that ive been into food for so long but had never got around to experiencing one of the worlds most famous dishes.The beef
delivered a perfect degree of cooking and flavour.The meat well aged and cut through with no pressure on the
knife.It was an amazing piece of beef.The foie gras balanced the dish perfectly well and the reduced sauce
made a  heavenly combination.Unfortunately once again , no truffle flavour came through in the Perigueux sauce but was compensated by a classic , well reduced and `varnish like one…simple and beautiful.

Next entered the cheese course , at last , we could both smell the tell tale smell even before it landed on the table.We both looked at each other, smiled and said the word `truffle` in unison. The cheese delivered the
goods and hit the mark , perfectly matured and had an amazing `wow factor`. Simple charcoal and plain crackers were all that was needed to make this a memorable cheese that ticked the boxes all around.

During the meal the service was very polite, attentive and available when required.Our sommelier was an entertainment in itself and worth his weight in gold.Each wine was well introduced and our glasses were kept filled up at regular intervals throughout the dinner.No grumbles about this guy , he was a master of his art.

Now for my favourite part of any meal, the desserts.I have a very sweet tooth and always look forward to this part like a child in a sweetshop.I was ever so slightly disappointed that the worlds best dessert “Le Louis XV
chocolate bar” wasn`t on the list.I have been looking forward to that one for quite a while now.In the absence of the XV i chose the Coco caramel delight , a bar of bittersweet caramel accompanied by a very tangy lemon puree and a well made vanilla citrus sorbet.Paired with a well selected dessert wine it had me smiling and had activated my sweet cravings.

My dining companion selected the Rum baba`like in Monte Carlo` , a very simple and classic dessert made
in the traditional way. An offering of various different types of Rum were presented at the table to pour over the baba.

The dinner finished with treats from the trolley, Macaroons (chocolate and passionfruit ) and coffee.We were surprised that coffee was not included as part of our  tasting menu but charged on the bill as an extra £10 supplement.

We were given a quick tour of the kitchen, a signed menu and an opportunity to have photos taken with Chef Herland .The menu in itself was a beautiful meal to eat, the wines were very well chosen.A terrible shame about the truffle episode but If truffle hadn`t been mentioned then it would have been even more wonderful night.Oh and i must note that the price of the truffle menu (£180 ) was adjusted on the bill to the price of the tasting menu ( £115 ).