Why did the truffle get invited to all the parties?
‘Cause he’s a fungi!
Get it!? A fungi?
Sorry about that, but there is some truth in it!
A trufflie is the most exciting fungus you could find at a party.
"Mmhmm."
"That's a ..." [laughs]
"Ohh it's cold—it's like a rock."
"Ewww it's smells so bad!"
[sniffs]
These warty balls of decadence have a smell and taste that’s been described as musky but intoxicating.
An experience to be had...if you can afford it.
The top truffles in the business are the Italian white truffles of Italy and the Périgord black truffles from France,
which can cost thousands of dollars per pound.
We got our hands on a lesser truffle, the summer or burgundy truffle — they grow throughout Europe.
"Kind of looks like a dragon egg, you know? Like from Game of Thrones. It's very interesting."
So why are truffles so expensive?
Well for one thing, they’re really hard to cultivate.
While there are over 200 species of truffles, only a handful are fit for consumption and even fewer are considered a prized culinary gem.
Found in temperate forests and countrysides across the globe,
truffles are the "fruit" of an ectomycorrhizal fungus.
That means they only grow underground near the roots of certain trees, through a symbiotic relationship with those trees.
Truffle farmers can inoculate orchards with truffle spores, but they can take years to grow and there’s no guarantee that the spores will take hold.
This fungus is sensitive to soil, temperature, moisture, and even other fungus spores.
Cultivation has been especially difficult for the famously aromatic Italian white truffle, adding to their hefty price tag.
Farmers and foragers alike are then tasked with finding the fungus.
Truffles that’ve grown closer to the surface of the soil can be found because of cracking in the surrounding soil and because of their smell.
But most truffles are found by dogs that are trained to sniff out the ripe ones.
Then you have to carefully unearth it with a trowel and keep the truffle from being damaged.
Female pigs were once widely used for truffling because they’re naturally drawn to truffles’ smell,
but it was hard to stop them from eating the treasure that they found.
Plus, pigs aren’t very subtle.
Truffle hunters are highly secretive about their harvesting spots.
Time is also a big part of why truffles are so expensive. Truffles generally have short seasons of just a few months.
And once they’re harvested, there’s a limited window when truffles are fresh.
They’re best enjoyed right away. But after that, you’ve got around seven days before it begins to lose all its flavor and rot.
Even then, half the aroma dissipates around 4 or 5 days.
Truffle yields are much lower than they used to be, in part due to climate change.
A century ago, France produced hundreds of tons of black truffles per year. Now it’s down to 40.
Because of truffles’ scarcity and high prices, they are subject to the shadier sides of the trade.
There’s always a risk of counterfeit. It is not uncommon for less regarded Asiatic truffles to get mixed with the good stuff.
Truffle oils have also popped up everywhere, but they’re usually made from synthetic compounds, not from real truffles.
On the more extreme side,
farms have been raided, truffle hunting dogs have been kidnapped and poisoned.
One man was even killed in an attempted truffle burglary.
It’s hard to know how much of it is hype.
But there is something to be said about the truffle’s elusive nature—sidestepping the commodification of its spores to the masses.
It’s like Miley Cyrus.
Love 'em or hate 'em, the world’s most expensive fungi cannot be tamed.
I feel like a cave with a lot of Glade PlugIns around... You know like they're trying to beat the cave smell with all the Glade.