The delicacy that is the truffle has been getting gourmands hot under the collar for centuries, millenia even! Lauded by the Romans and the Greeks as a fungi with powerful therapeutic and aphrodisiac qualities, today the little black gems fetch a high price from restaurants and individuals prepared to pay over the odds for them.
The French and Italian countryside is where many truffles are harvested, and due to particularly wet summers for the past two years, the English are also finding hordes of the fungal delights throughout their woods and forests, even though locations are always kept top secret.
The areas of Perigord in France and Alba in Italy are so renowned for their sought-after fungi that thier names have been lent to particular types of truffle.
Nigel Hadden-Patton of Truffle UK is understandably enthusiastic about the latest sproutings in the British woodland:
"It's a really exciting year. Like most crops, truffles need water and warmth and that's what we've had this summer. There are lots of truffles and we have found them up to 500g each - bigger than cricket balls."
Fungi dependent on trees for life
Truffles are a mixture of fungus and fungal spores which tangle together to create the familiar hard, marbled black and white nugget found at the base of trees. Truffles have what is known as a «symbiotic», or co-dependent, relationship with the trees on whose roots they grow.
The truffle fungi, by attaching themselves to the root of the tree, increase the surface area of the trees roots, allowing more nutrients and water to be absorbed. In turn, the tree provides the truffles with glucose sugars with which to grow, as truffles do not photosynthesise like other, independent, plants.
The three main types of truffle are the white truffle (Tuber magnatum), the black or Perigord truffle (T. melanosporum) and the summer truffle (T. aestivum). Summer truffles are the most common- they are black and covered with warts. They are generally 1in-3in across and can weigh up to 2lb (0.9kg).
As truffles grow underground, they go largely undetected without the help of specially trained truffle dogs to seek them out. At the turn of the 20th century, the European landed gentry used Spanish poodles to seek out these expensive wares of the forests. In the past, the Italians and the French used sows who were attracted to the truffles' smell – which is the same as a boar's saliva. Unfortunately for the bounty hunters, the pigs almost always gobbled up the truffles, hence the reason that dogs are now employed.
Expensive treats
The delight of the truffle's refined, woody flavour has enticed many to splash their cash. Today truffles fetch large sums per kilo, starting from around 370 € per kilo for summer truffles to a jaw-dropping 5000 € per kilo for the finest Italian white truffle. Last December, the priciest truffle was sold to a casino owner for a whopping $330,000 US in an auction held simultaneously in Macau, London and Florence.
Stanley Ho outbidded the likes of the artist Damien Hirst and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi to lay his hands on a superb Italian white truffle weighing 1.5kg. The treasure was found by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco near Pisa in northern Italy.