Practical truffle advice
 

Practical suggestions for people who don't want to spend much, but want to
try the famous underground mushrooms so often mentioned in the food world.
Mentioned in the past 150 years by Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Jacques
Pépin, Paula Wolfert, the Joy of Cooking, the Gourmet Cook Book, Chez
Panisse Cooking, Michel Guérard, Escoffier, Saint-Ange, Molokhovets, Duch,
Mrs. Beeton, the Larousse Gastronomique, the Oxford Companion to Food,* and
Alexandre Dumas. Studied on their home ground in classic food writing by
Joseph Wechsberg and Waverly Root (in both France and Italy).

In the following, you may need to improvise according to local options. But
what I recommend is to get to know a local delicatessen that may be able to
import truffles, or an independent (non-chain) high-end restaurant kitchen
that uses them. Dine at the restaurant at a non-busy time (in the US that
means not, usually, Friday or Saturday night). Talk to the senior cooks,
express your interest. Creative restaurant kitchens often resonate with
sincere food interest by customers. Explain you'd love the chance to sniff
and/or sample good traditional truffles in season. Ask to be alerted when
the season comes around. Of course I can't guarantee, but you may be
surprised how accommodating restaurant kitchens can be to such interest.
(It also helps create good will.)

Season for classic European truffles is roughly November to March.

If you use a delicatessen instead of a restaurant, I suggest again asking to
be alerted when they're available, and try to order a small example of a
classic truffle (like 15 grams, half an ounce), or join with friends and
share the cost of a larger one. Pick up the truffle as soon as it comes in
(it may already have traveled for a while, and they only last a few days,
preferably refrigerated, then they decompose, smelling of ammonia etc.)
Scrub the outside well with a brush (it came from in dirt, after all).
Black truffles especially have rough skin that can trap dirt -- sometimes
people peel them and use the peelings in a well-cooked dish. Once you cut
or shave them, you'll see the trademark canal patterns inside.

Good examples of black-truffle sampling dishes are egg cookery (scramble a
few eggs with shaved or chopped truffle). Or chop the truffle fine and heat
gently in some cream or a mild sauce, salt to taste, toss over pasta. White
truffles usually are not cooked, but shaved thinly over something at the
last moment. Risotto with Parmesan cheese, pasta, toasted bread with butter
or olive oil. Truffles are aromatic, but rarely overpowering.

About 20 years ago I asked an expert for suggestions for a fine white
(Italian) truffle. The expert was the importer (herself from Italy) with a
favorite recipe. Mash the white truffle in a mortar with a similar volume
of good unsalted butter to make a paste. Season slightly with white pepper,
and spread this around the upper halves of breadsticks, finally wrapping
with a thin layer of Prosciutto ham. Serve, if possible, as an appetizer
with Champagne or a delicate white wine.

Marcella Hazan (1978, ISBN 0394498550) gives a remarkable recipe,
Norcia-style spaghetti with black truffles. It's probably wrong for an
economical introduction because it calls for relatively a lot of black
truffle, but it's sure worth quoting. Truffles are ground or grated, then
cooked gently with a little olive oil, anchovy, and a touch of garlic, then
tossed with thin spaghetti. Each pasta strand is coated with fine black
truffle bits. ("This dish should be reserved for lovers. Some pleasures
are too keen to be shared with a crowd. And in this case, too expensive.")

Classic European black and white truffles (the Latin names appear below)
make up at least 99% of the truffle references in food writing (I know,
because I have a lot of it). Once you've tried good examples, you'll have
an informed palate. I suggest also exploring and comparing the less famous,
less expensive truffle species recently available. You may find some you
enjoy, and people's tastes vary. But you also will have gone "to the
source."

Good luck -- Max Hauser


--
* "It is true that some species of truffle exist in N. America, including
Tuber texense, an edible white truffle used by some restaurateurs. But no
one has claimed that this, or any other truffle outside Europe, is a serious
rival to the black truffle of Périgord, T. melanosporum, or the white
truffle of Alba, T. magnatum." -- Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford
University Press, 1999)

Practical truffle advice
 

On Jun 27, 11:15 am, "Max Hauser" > wrote:
> Practical suggestions for people who don't want to spend much, but want to
> try the famous underground mushrooms so often mentioned in the food world.
> Mentioned in the past 150 years by Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Jacques
> Pépin, Paula Wolfert, the Joy of Cooking, the Gourmet Cook Book, Chez
> Panisse Cooking, Michel Guérard, Escoffier, Saint-Ange, Molokhovets, Duch,
> Mrs. Beeton, the Larousse Gastronomique, the Oxford Companion to Food,* and
> Alexandre Dumas. Studied on their home ground in classic food writing by
> Joseph Wechsberg and Waverly Root (in both France and Italy).
>
> In the following, you may need to improvise according to local options. But
> what I recommend is to get to know a local delicatessen that may be able to
> importtruffles, or an independent (non-chain) high-end restaurant kitchen
> that uses them. Dine at the restaurant at a non-busy time (in the US that
> means not, usually, Friday or Saturday night). Talk to the senior cooks,
> express your interest. Creative restaurant kitchens often resonate with
> sincere food interest by customers. Explain you'd love the chance to sniff
> and/or sample good traditionaltrufflesin season. Ask to be alerted when
> the season comes around. Of course I can't guarantee, but you may be
> surprised how accommodating restaurant kitchens can be to such interest.
> (It also helps create good will.)
>
> Season for classic Europeantrufflesis roughly November to March.
>
> If you use a delicatessen instead of a restaurant, I suggest again asking to
> be alerted when they're available, and try to order a small example of a
> classic truffle (like 15 grams, half an ounce), or join with friends and
> share the cost of a larger one. Pick up the truffle as soon as it comes in
> (it may already have traveled for a while, and they only last a few days,
> preferably refrigerated, then they decompose, smelling of ammonia etc.)
> Scrub the outside well with a brush (it came from in dirt, after all).
> Blacktrufflesespecially have rough skin that can trap dirt -- sometimes
> people peel them and use the peelings in a well-cooked dish. Once you cut
> or shave them, you'll see the trademark canal patterns inside.
>
> Good examples of black-truffle sampling dishes are egg cookery (scramble a
> few eggs with shaved or chopped truffle). Or chop the truffle fine and heat
> gently in some cream or a mild sauce, salt to taste, toss over pasta. Whitetrufflesusually are not cooked, but shaved thinly over something at the
> last moment. Risotto with Parmesan cheese, pasta, toasted bread with butter
> or olive oil. Trufflesare aromatic, but rarely overpowering.
>
> About 20 years ago I asked an expert for suggestions for a fine white
> (Italian) truffle. The expert was the importer (herself from Italy) with a
> favorite recipe. Mash the white truffle in a mortar with a similar volume
> of good unsalted butter to make a paste. Season slightly with white pepper,
> and spread this around the upper halves of breadsticks, finally wrapping
> with a thin layer of Prosciutto ham. Serve, if possible, as an appetizer
> with Champagne or a delicate white wine.
>
> Marcella Hazan (1978, ISBN 0394498550) gives a remarkable recipe,
> Norcia-style spaghetti with blacktruffles. It's probably wrong for an
> economical introduction because it calls for relatively a lot of black
> truffle, but it's sure worth quoting. Trufflesare ground or grated, then
> cooked gently with a little olive oil, anchovy, and a touch of garlic, then
> tossed with thin spaghetti. Each pasta strand is coated with fine black
> truffle bits. ("This dish should be reserved for lovers. Some pleasures
> are too keen to be shared with a crowd. And in this case, too expensive.")
>
> Classic European black and whitetruffles(the Latin names appear below)
> make up at least 99% of the truffle references in food writing (I know,
> because I have a lot of it). Once you've tried good examples, you'll have
> an informed palate. I suggest also exploring and comparing the less famous,
> less expensive truffle species recently available. You may find some you
> enjoy, and people's tastes vary. But you also will have gone "to the
> source."
>
> Good luck -- Max Hauser
>
> --
> * "It is true that some species of truffle exist in N. America, includingTubertexense, an edible white truffle used by some restaurateurs. But no
> one has claimed that this, or any other truffle outside Europe, is a serious
> rival to the black truffle of Périgord, T. melanosporum, or the white
> truffle of Alba, T. magnatum." -- Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford
> University Press, 1999)

Your posting lists 3 species of truffle. There are more than 100
species of Tuber known in the Northern Hemisphere. For a much better
discussion of species, see:

Castellano, M.A.., J.M. Trappe, Z. Maser and C. Maser. 1989. Key to
spores of the genera of hypogeous fungi of north temperate forests
with special reference to animal mycophagy. Mad River Press, Eureka,
CA. 186 p.

You might also read Mushrooms Demystified by David Aurora. Aurora
mentions more than 30 species of truffles.

And finally, check out the North American Truffling Organization
(formerly North American Truffling Society), which includes a cookbook
(c. 1987) of North American Truffles, not one of which is mentioned in
your posting above.

By mentioning a select few of the available cooking citations (no
James Beard!?! and a year before her death, Julia Child still hadn't
tried native truffle species!), you have re-iterated only those fungi
which a) could be collected in mass, and b) could be sold for a
considerable profit.

The vast majority of truffle and truffle-like fungi found in North
America are seldom, if ever, collected and even more rarely eaten.
Thus unless you happen to go truffle hunting with the North American
Truffling Organization; or happen to get an invitation to find
truffles with a truffle expert, you are very unlikely to even find a
truffle. It has been said that it is not possible to experience Tuber
magnatum outside of Italy during the height of its season. Seldom
considered is the corrolary of that statement: No one is likely to
find other mature truffles from other countries, and experience their
true culinary qualities unless they look.

As for truffle pastes and canned truffles: in my experience they are
expensive poor seconds. As Lawrence Stickney of the San Francisco
Mycological Society told me, canned/preserved truffles are similar to
boiled potatoes.

Daniel B. Wheeler

Practical truffle advice
 

My previous posting "Practical Truffle Advice" explains that it is for
people wishing an introduction to the main truffle species of food
literature. Those are incontrovertibly Tuber melanosporum and T. magnatum,
"black" and "white" respectively. (Any reader can confirm the primacy of
these truffles in the famous food books I cited, which go into more detail.)

The inexpensive or "minor" truffle species, certainly of interest to cooks
also, and to truffle hobbyists, are outside the purpose of that posting.
They would properly require a separate thread. Except to make clear that
they do not appear in the classic food literature I cited. They are not the
black and white truffles described by all of those writers. (I've mentioned
truffles on newsgroups for more than 20 years, after creation of
rec.food.cooking by a friend of mine.)

D. Wheeler has advertised "Oregon White Truffles" and is identified
elsewhere as a vendor of them. He writes on truffles in cooking from an
evident commercial conflict of interest. Wheeler's newsgroup postings are
among the recent writing -- usually from people with a commercial stake --
that cloud the distinction between minor and classic truffle species.
Wheeler even denigrates the latter, in ways that place him into conflict
with Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Jacques Pépin, Paula Wolfert, Alice
Waters, et alia. The reader can decide whom to take seriously. (More of
Wheeler's perspective and reasoning are evident in his semi-incoherent
responses to my postings on the recent thread "Questions about truffles" in
rec.food.cooking.)


From Waverly Root's long 1980 truffle article (he'd mentioned them much
earlier, in his books on French and Italian food). Root was the mentor of
A. J. Liebling and is recognized as one of the principal US food writers of
the 20th century.

"... The only edible variety in the British Isles is T. aestivus, the summer
truffle, dark brown or black, with an aromatic odor but not much taste. ...
[In the United States there are some 30 native] varieties of truffles, none
of which make particularly good eating. Every once in a while somebody
discovers truffles there and glimpses fortune ahead, only to suffer
disappointment. This happens oftenest in Oregon and California ..."

Practical truffle advice
 

On Jul 9, 3:30 pm, "Max Hauser" > wrote:
> My previous posting "Practical Truffle Advice" explains that it is for
> people wishing an introduction to the main truffle species of food
> literature. Those are incontrovertibly Tuber melanosporum and T. magnatum,
> "black" and "white" respectively. (Any reader can confirm the primacy of
> these truffles in the famous food books I cited, which go into more detail.)
>
I agree the the books your suggested in your Practical Truffle Advice
has some merit. But they seem to me selective: no mention of James
Beard, Caprial Pence, Greg Higgins, and others merit who have written
on the subject. Perhaps the complete list would have been too long? I
do note there is no mention of the North American Truffling Society's
"The Cookbook of North American Truffles", which has to be the classic
text for American species to date. Why no mention of these species in
other books? Vast ignorance IMO.
> The inexpensive or "minor" truffle species, certainly of interest to cooks
> also, and to truffle hobbyists, are outside the purpose of that posting.
> They would properly require a separate thread. Except to make clear that
> they do not appear in the classic food literature I cited. They are not the
> black and white truffles described by all of those writers. (I've mentioned
> truffles on newsgroups for more than 20 years, after creation of
> rec.food.cooking by a friend of mine.)
>
> D.Wheelerhas advertised "Oregon White Truffles" and is identified
> elsewhere as a vendor of them. He writes on truffles in cooking from an
> evident commercial conflict of interest. Wheeler'snewsgroup postings are
> among the recent writing -- usually from people with a commercial stake --
> that cloud the distinction between minor and classic truffle species.Wheelereven denigrates the latter, in ways that place him into conflict
> with Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Jacques Pépin, Paula Wolfert, Alice
> Waters, et alia. The reader can decide whom to take seriously. (More ofWheeler'sperspective and reasoning are evident in his semi-incoherent
> responses to my postings on the recent thread "Questions about truffles" in
> rec.food.cooking.)
As for Julia Child, she stated in a truffle article for the Contra
Costa Times just before she died, that she had not tried American
truffles, but that she had no reason to suspect they were inferior to
European varieties, and that they might indeed be better. "Why not?"
she is quoted as saying. Tthe identification of Tuber gibbosum by
Harkness in 1883 (the description was printed in 1898) said it was a
shame these fungi were not found more commonly, otherwise they might
be considered as good as the truffles of commerce (i.e. European
species). But to ignore the Terfezia, Choiromyces, and my special
favorite Picoa "for people who don't want to spend much for truffles
is, I think, a disservice.

Not heard of Picoa? I wonder why. It was named for Pico, whose name is
usually appended to the end of Tuber magnatum, which he first
described in science. Picoa are known from France, Spain, Japan and
the US.

As for my previous business, your statements border slander. I have
dropped my business after learning I have methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Does that make my statements "semi-
coherent"? I was unaware of it. The disease affects my body, not my
mind.
>
> From Waverly Root's long 1980 truffle article (he'd mentioned them much
> earlier, in his books on French and Italian food). Root was the mentor of
> A. J. Liebling and is recognized as one of the principal US food writers of
> the 20th century.
Interesting but passe. Did you know the North American Truffling
Society began in 1980? Is science too dry for foodies?
>
> "... The only edible variety in the British Isles is T. aestivus, the summer
> truffle, dark brown or black, with an aromatic odor but not much taste. ....
> [In the United States there are some 30 native] varieties of truffles, none
> of which make particularly good eating. Every once in a while somebody
> discovers truffles there and glimpses fortune ahead, only to suffer
> disappointment. This happens oftenest in Oregon and California ..."

Root obvious had not heard of T. rufum, which has also been reported
(rarely) from England. Odd. In Scandinavia it is on the endangered
species list, but is avidly sought after. Here in Oregon is has been
reported in collections submitted to the North American Truffling
Society on a fairly regular basis.

As Dr. James Trappe, professor emeritus at Oregon State University has
stated, the vast majority of truffles sold in the US until at least
1990 and possibly later were sold immature. I can state from
experience that in my opinion the Oregon White truffle (Tuber
gibbosum) is at least as good as the Italian White truffle. If the
fruiting times for both species overlapped sufficiently, people might
be able to try side-by-side tastings of them, much like good wines.

There are now known to be at least 50 species of native American
truffles known to date, and the list may well reach 100, at least
according to Dr. Trappe.

Have you tried Tuber californicum (California Black truffle)?
Have you tried T. rufum (Red truffle)?
Have you tried T. murinum (Pallid truffle)?
Have you tried T. sphaerosporum?
Have you tried T. oregonense?
Have you tried T. quercicola?
Have you tried T. separans?

>From other continents, have you tried Choiromyces meandriformis?
Tuber indicum?
Tuber himalayensis?
Terfezia species(there are over 100 species of desert truffles from
Africa and the Middle East. These were likely to truffles from Libya,
exported to Rome in the time of Pliny and Socrates.)

You mention in another thread that it would be inappropriate to judge
European species unless one has had them in Europe at the height of
their season. Yet you treat our native varieties with contempt without
judging them in the same environment.

Too bad.

You have missed the butterscotch aroma of Endogone lactiflua when
frozen. (Edibility unknown, not recommended). The strong Bailey's
Irish Cream aroma of Alpova diplophloeus when mature and softened.
(Edible) The overpowering stench of Gautieria monticola (think fresh
roofing tar - capable of driving you out of your car when driving when
a single specimen is in the car trunk).

Or even the tremendous oil of garlic aroma (about 1000 times stronger
than just garlic) of a species which remains unnamed at this time.

Of course, you would have to invest some of your time away from
cookbooks and more on finding dinner.<G> Perhaps even finding your own
T. magnatum in Italy or Croatia. Yes, the largest reported (2.6 kg) T.
magnatum came from outside of Italy.

Iin matters of taste, everyone should be allowed their own opinion.
Not everyone likes T. magnatum (I'm obviously one of them). Dr. Trappe
loves it. You obviously don't care for T. gibbosum. I like T.
gibbosum. But the T. gibbosum identified from 1980 is now known as T.
oregonense. The real T. gibbosum is found from late winter to early
spring in Washington, California and Oregon, and has been sampled by
darn few people. Some claim it is "too strong". Similarly the coconut/
chocolate/pineapple combination of Picoa carthusiana is especially
enticing to me. How will others like it if they have never tried it?

Daniel B. Wheeler