● Species profile
Black Truffle
Tuber melanosporum
Photo: Royonx, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Périgord truffle, an underground fungus sniffed out by trained dogs and pigs under oak and hazel. It's farmed by planting inoculated trees, which can take 5 to 10 years to produce. Most truffle oil gets its flavor from a synthetic compound, not truffle.
Historical Use and Context
Truffles were eaten in ancient Greece and Rome, where people believed they formed where lightning struck the ground. The French Périgord truffle became a luxury in the 1700s and 1800s, hunted first with pigs and later with dogs.
In the early 1800s Joseph Talon found that planting acorns from truffle-producing oaks could start new truffle grounds, the beginning of truffle farming.
How to Cook Black Truffle
- Flavor
- Earthy, musky, deeply aromatic
- Texture
- Firm and dense
- Best ways to cook
- Shave raw over hot food, or warm gently in butter or cream. High heat kills the aroma.
- Pairs with
- Eggs, butter, pasta, risotto, potatoes
- Prep tip
- Brush clean and shave paper-thin right before serving.
- Storage
- Wrap in paper towel in an airtight jar in the fridge. Change the towel daily, use within a week.
Cooking isn't only about flavor. Mushroom cell walls are built from chitin, which is hard to digest raw. Heat breaks it down, which helps your body get at the beta-glucans and other compounds the research focuses on.
Similar Culinary Mushrooms
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