They’re one of the finest delicacies in the world, and are dramatically expensive, but where can truffles grow?
While truffles can grow in clay soil, they won’t if the clay content is higher than around thirty percent. It’s advised that the percentages of clay, silt, and sand are as balanced as possible and that the soil is soft and loose.
Read on to learn more about sought-after truffles and their growing process.
The Art of the Truffle
It’s suggested that truffles have been enjoyed by humans for well over a thousand years. When the 19th century arrived, they experienced a massive boom.
However, by the turn of the following century, their production all but died out again. The two world wars laid waste to vast swathes of land, killing out a lot of natural, fertile ground.
In today’s world, truffles are a rare and expensive delicacy, served in very few places. There are restaurants that offer them as an accompaniment to meals, but they’re few and far between.
When it comes to the price of truffles, there’s no better way to apply perspective than to look at their highest value. In 2018, an 850-gram white truffle was sold for an incredible $96,000.
There was reportedly a restaurant in New York City offering a truffle-centric menu. At the lowest end of the spectrum, a single shaving of truffle would cost around seventy-five dollars.
The majority of the truffle’s value comes from the difficulty experienced in growing and serving them. They’re considerably fragile and must be served within forty-eight hours of being picked.
They’re extremely difficult to find in the wild, and throughout history, humans have tried everything to track them down. The most common method is to use specially-trained dogs to sniff them out.
They also will only grow in the most optimum of conditions. Reportedly, the most prominent location to find truffles is around Northern Italy.
They’re commonly shaved over pasta dishes, offering a complementary flavor.
Truffles can be cultivated, but there are many rules to follow when doing so. It’s advised that a loose, soft soil should be used, with a clay content no higher than thirty-percent.
This is mainly due to the fact that a compact, heavy clay soil will offer no advantage to a growing truffle. It will struggle to expand, and end up gnarled, and knotty.
Is There Mushroom for Fungi?
It may surprise people that a truffle, being as expensive as it is, is just a fungus. It’s similar to a mushroom but grows in different environments and circumstances.
Where a mushroom grows above ground, truffles grow just underground, typically near the roots of trees. This obviously contributes massively to the “extremely-difficult-to-find” attribute.
They don’t really look anything like a mushroom, either. While mushrooms are mostly uniform in size, shape, and appearance, truffles differ wildly.
This is mostly due to their underground growth, where the literal earth shapes their appearance. They end up looking like black, brown, or white rocks, with bobbled, uneven surfaces.
There are so many elements that combine to determine the growth and outcome of a truffle. Their location, depth under the earth, the weather they grow in, and the composition of their soil all weigh in.
Mushrooms, on the other hand, aren’t really all that fussy.
It’s been explained that the bulk of the enjoyment of truffles comes not from the taste, but the smell. Of course, smell contributes massively to taste, but truffles are a different world.
They’re described as having a deeply unique and often complex aroma. There can be hints of garlic, mushroom, and earthy scents.
Others have said truffles exude pungent scents, like game, and musk. It’s reportedly the complex chemicals and pheromones within a truffle that create these scents.
Try The Truffle
Unfortunately, food is one of those things that must be experienced to be understood.
It’s not impossible to get your hands on truffles, but it will cost a fair amount. For example, two ounces of fresh white truffles could cost you as much as four hundred dollars online.
You can buy items with truffle mixed in, to reduce the cost, but it’s ‘not as good’. You can buy pasta, risottos, and butter pre-mixed with truffle, to get a small idea of the taste.
Although, you won’t have a strong experience of the smell, and that’s apparently where the goodness in a truffle lies.