RuvidaMente
HOW TO HANDLE TRUFFLES
PUTTING THE DOG TO WORK
In the distant past, truffle hunters received their most valuable assistance from hogs and, particularly, sows. The
animal’s keen sense of smell as well as its voracious appetite make it a highly effective guide to the places where truffles are sure to be found. However, it is hard to hold back a sow, which is
large, strong and pigheaded, when what she’s been looking for has been brought to the surface. The hunters looked around for a more docile assistant and settled on the dog, which is endowed with
a good sense of smell and, more important, is easily trained and controlled.
The first dogs to be trained in truffle hunting were mongrels or bastardin, in the Piedmontese dialect. Initially, however, at least one of the animal’s parents or its grandfather had to be a Pomeranian. More recently, hunting dogs have been pressed into service, most of them crossbreeds of bloodhounds and pointers or pointers and English setters.
The truffle dog goes through a rough training period, during which it is fed nothing but bread and water and is kept permanently
on a chain. At the beginning, at least, the dog must know hunger and realize that the only way it can obtain nourishment is to scrape away at the soil to unearth truffles. The dog begins to
produce satisfactory results only after three or four years. It is at the peak of its form until about the age of eight, after which it tends to decide that hunting for truffles is work and that
it is not the only way of getting something to eat. At that point, its performance declines.
The hunter who does not have the time or patience to train a dog to track down truffles can buy an animal already broken into the trade. However, the dogs are no cheaper than the tubers they hunt, since their prices range from $5,000 to $10,000.
WHAT THEY SHOULD BE LIKE
Because it is a fungus that lives in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of another plant, the truffle depends upon a micro-environment created by climate, plant and soil. Favorable conditions, which are highly particular, are found in numerous Italian regions, although with various shadings.
When it is mature, the premium white truffle of Alba has a golden crust and a smooth skin. The interior displays extremely fine veining. If it is flatfish in shape, it means that the tuber grew in clayey soil or at a greater depth than usual, which could be a positive factor since the dog was able to smell it despite its greater distance from the surface. The more globular and rounder the truffle, the softer the soil in which it has grown.
The harder the wood of the tree nearest which the truffle grew, the more intense the odor and flavor of the truffle. For that reason, the tubers that are most highly esteemed because of their sensory characteristics are those found near oaks, whose wood is more solid and heavier by volume than that of other trees.
The color is also different. Truffles that grow near oaks are darker than those found near poplars, which are of a brighter hue and can also attain a larger size. Truffles are also unearthed near willows, lindens and hazels.
The odor should be intense, almost nauseating but the tuber should not emit a petroleum-like scent. In that case, a drop of synthetic aroma might have been added to a truffle of little worth. Buyers should avoid tubers that are full of dirt—they weigh more—and those sold in small pieces, because it is easy to combine bits of varying degrees of quality.
The same observations apply to the premium or sweet black truffle of Norcia (Tuber melanosporum), which can be recognized by its slightly warty skin and its sweetish but not unpleasant odor. The interior is intense black with fine whitish veining.
In addition to those two premium varieties, there are others of lesser value like the bianchetto or marzuolo (Tuber albidum), which at its largest is the size of an egg, as well as the scorzone (Tuber aestivum), which is black and extremely warty. They are of little use in cooking and the scorzone is mostly collected for processing companies that use it to aromatize pâtés, pastas, butter, cheeses and other foods.
DEFECTS
If the truffle remains in water-logged soil, it develops a brownish color, becomes soft and begins to rot. At that point,
it’s called marsun in Piedmontese dialect. The tuber can also be attacked by innumerable minute vermin (gianin), which create hundreds of small holes, like pin pricks, on the tuber’s surface. The
truffle’s weight is reduced and the interior can even be completely eaten away.
Truffles that have been damaged in that fashion are normally discarded but dirt is sometimes rubbed into the surface to hide
defects. However, the loss of odor cannot be disguised.
Buyers should be on the lookout for truffles that are too light or slightly discolored. If there are grayish spots, caused by mold, on the surface, that can mean that the truffle is old and has lost much of its quality and scent.
If it should be attractive in appearance but does not emit its customary odor, it could be a Tuber magnatum that is not yet mature. And consuming it won’t bring the diner much pleasure.
In buying, the consumer should look for such defects as splotches and splits in the skin and pay attention to how the tuber has been preserved. And he or she should be aware of another trick—not a particularly serious ruse—practiced by some hunters when they have split an otherwise fine and attractive truffle while removing it from the ground and still want to sell it at a good price. They put it back together and hold the two pieces in place by using extremely fine slivers of bamboo. The joint is masked by smearing the surface with the same dirt in which the truffle grew.
BLACK OR WHITE IN COOKING?
Debates over which variety, the black or the white, is best in cooking have gone on for centuries. However, most of the discussion has been provoked not by culinary aspects of the question but by local patriotism or an unyielding defense of traditional practices.
The gourmet who is intent solely on savoring the pleasures offered by
fine cuisine decided long ago that the two most highly regarded species of truffle can peacefully coexist through a precise division of labor. In preparations in which the truffle is subjected to
extended cooking, it is best to use the black variety of Norcia. The white truffle of Alba is best when it is served raw—cooking does not agree with it. In fact, it is ritually shaved in thin
slivers at the table over the dish it is meant to flavor.
The supremacy of Tuber magnatum is established by the fact that it is best consumed raw and needs no sauce or condiment to bring out its premium qualities. It requires only the simplest of dishes to set off its attributes and particularly its delicate but penetrating aroma that is both aristocratic and wholesomely plebeian, an odor that attracts, fascinates, overwhelms and magically excites the appetite.