Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom - Hardcover

Hall, Ian R.; Brown, Gordon; Zambonelli, Alessandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881928607 ISBN 13: 9780881928600

Publisher: Timber Press, 2008

Synopsis

Whether the world’s best truffles come from Piedmont or Périgord inspires impassioned debate, but the effects of dwindling supply and insatiable demand for the elusive mushroom are unquestionable: prices through the roof, intrigue and deception, and ever more intensive efforts to cultivate. As international mycologist Ian Hall and his colleagues have written, “Attempts at taming the truffle, of ordering its growth and harvest, now span the globe, and there has been some success in unlocking the secrets of what French researchers have aptly referred to as la grande mystique.”
 
The secrets of when, how, and where to collect truffles have been passed from generation to generation since ancient times, but artificial cultivation remains the holy grail. Here, in the most comprehensive practical treatment of the gastronomic treasure to date, the art and science of the high-stakes pursuit come together. This extensively illustrated volume brings the latest research and decades of experience to enthusiasts and professionals alike, with coverage of the leading truffle areas including France, Italy, Spain, and Asia, and the newcomers: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
 
The authors leaven their enthusiasm and expertise with wry humor, exploring the history and newest techniques. They describe in detail the commercial species and their host plants, natural habitats, cultivation, and maintenance, pests and diseases, and harvesting with pigs, dogs, truffle flies, and even the electronic nose. Production in truffle plantations can begin after only three years, but often the rewards may take more than a decade. So there is plenty of time to read and prepare, and no better resource than this one.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Hall is a scientist in New Zealand, specializing in edible mushrooms and mycorrhizas. Gordon Brown has collaborated with Ian Hall on two books prior to Taming the Truffle. Alessandra Zambonelli is a foremost Italian expert on truffles. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bologna, where she teaches mycology and applied plant pathology. Widely published, Zambonelli is the president of the Italian Mycological Association.

From the Back Cover

The art and science of cultivating the fungus worth more than gold

The most comprehensive practical treatment of the gastronomic treasure to date, Taming the Truffle brings the latest research and decades of experience to enthusiasts and professionals alike, with coverage of the leading truffle areas including France, Italy, Spain, and Asia, and the newcomers: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Reviews

Anyone who’s ever tasted a fresh truffle appreciates firsthand the sensual, almost primitive, allure of this fungus’ unmistakable, powerful, penetrating perfume. Gourmets endlessly debate the relative virtues of Italy’s white truffle and France’s black truffle, but properly selected and prepared, either can gratify. Both the truffle’s rarity and the idiosyncrasy of its traditional harvesting with trained pigs or dogs to sniff out its underground lairs add to this mushroom’s allure. Demand for truffles and a decline in the annual harvest have caused prices to skyrocket, leading to fraudulent marketing and to increasing attempts to cultivate truffles beyond their wild habitats. The authors survey Europe’s, Asia’s, and America’s truffles and distinguish each subspecies’ biological and culinary characteristics. They lay out the problems and the successes of commercial truffle production. This is technically detailed and abstruse data, but aficionados, chefs, and cooking students can learn a lot here about these lords of the fungi realm. --Mark Knoblauch

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the Past Comes the Present
The early history of truffles can only be garnered from the often all too brief references ascribed to luminaries of the past, and it is likely these recorded comments referred to only three of the many edible truffles now known to exist throughout the world. Of the three, desert truffles (Eremiomyces, Kalaharituber, Terfezia, and Tirmania) are still prized in the Middle East, North Africa, and by the Bushmen of the Kalahari. However, it is the Périgord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) of France and the Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum) that dominate today’s truffle world.
 
The harvesting and marketing of truffles is a world that retains some of the mystery and intrigue of the past, a world that could easily be mistaken for the realm of fiction, with its record of rivalry, skulduggery, and parochialism. Whether the world’s best truffles are found in Italy’s Piedmont or Périgord is fertile ground for debate, particularly between the Italians and French. But what cannot be debated is the global demand for both, a demand that cannot be met, one that pushes prices through the ceiling, encourages trade deception, and for nearly two centuries has fuelled efforts at cultivation.

The mystery of truffles that intrigued some of the great thinkers of the past is today occupying the research efforts of mycologists around the world. While fanciful theories have been replaced with sound scientific knowledge, the holy grail of truffle research—their artificial cultivation—is still problematic. Such is the interest in truffles, as well as their gastronomic and trade possibilities, that the focus of research has spread from the Périgord black truffle and the Italian white truffle to include a range of subterranean relations, several which are well regarded in culinary circles.

The Burgundy truffle (Tuber aestivum) has excellent gastronomic qualities, which has led to its successful cultivation in France. Being less fussy as to soil, host tree, and climate than its illustrious cousins, the Burgundy truffle is probably the most common edible truffle species in Europe. Tuber aestivum occurs naturally from the Mediterranean Basin in the south to the island of Gotland off the east coast of Sweden in the north and from the Atlantic coast in the west to an eastern European limit as yet undetermined. The Burgundy truffle has also been found in packs of truffles exported to Europe from China.
 
Several species of truffle, including the most important Tuber indicum, are traditional foods and are used as tonics by the Yi and Han people in China. Local names such as wu-niang teng (no mother plant) reflect the confusion of early European thinkers as to how truffles were formed. Generally, these and other Asiatic truffles have not received a good reception in the trade, despite exports to Europe increasing dramatically since the early 1990s.
 
Other truffles, such as Italy’s bianchetto (Tuber borchii), have important local markets. While only truly valued in Italy between Ferrara and Ravenna, bianchetto (whitish truffle), so called to distinguish it from the more expensive Tuber magnatum, has excellent culinary credentials and is gaining in gastronomic appreciation. In the United States and Canada, the garlic-odoured Oregon white truffle (Tuber gibbosum) is abundant in the Douglas fir forests that extend from San Francisco northward to British Columbia. This species is thought by some U.S. enthusiasts to be the equal of the European truffles. Such claims notwithstanding, the Périgord black truffle and the Italian white truffle remain pre-eminent.
 

Edition details

• Publisher: Timber Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881928607
• ISBN 13: 9780881928600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304