Fresh Summer Truffles from France
Just the sound of that sentence evokes hard-to-define feelings bordering on a combination of romance and mystery. These are black truffles, firm, wonderfully fragrant, and ready for the kitchens of interested home chefs throughout the country. Every season, when Earthy Delights starts shipping the annual harvest of fresh truffles, I receive notes and inquiries from curious folks wanting to know more about them. What are truffles? How are they cooked? What makes them so special?
People are curious about truffles because they carry a certain mystery, a certain aura that is absent in other mushrooms. To begin with, truffles are mushrooms. Scarce mushrooms. On top of this, they grow underground in difficult-to-predict locations, so they’re tricky to find. Tricky enough, in fact, that they’re usually tracked using either trained dogs or pigs. Pigs are becoming scarce as truffle-hunters because they’re large and awkward to transport, for one thing. They can also be irascible, and would certainly and happily consume the truffles they find if given the opportunity to do so. Dogs, on the other hand, can be trained to locate the elusive fungi, but are less than interested in dining on them.
The flavor of a truffle is a challenge to describe because it doesn’t taste like anything else. Envision a mature forest with towering trees and a fern-covered floor, with blue-green light filtering through the leafy canopy to the wildflowers below. If you could bottle that impression as if it were a flavor, then it might taste something like a truffle.
Here are a few hints about truffles:
1. Store them in a refrigerator in a paper bag. Never use plastic. Truffles need to “breathe.”
2. Don’t soak them in water unless you intend to use the water for cooking. Water will dissipate their flavor. To clean them, brush away any dirt and rinse very quickly under running water.
3. Truffles lend their flavor to other things that they’re stored with. Eggs, butter, and even whiskey can be infused with truffle flavor. Insert some pieces of truffle into a stick of butter and the butter will assume the flavor of the truffles. Place a truffle in a carton of eggs and leave it overnight. Voila! Truffled eggs. Store a truffle in a bottle of whiskey and the same thing happens.
4. Truffles are usually, but not always, served uncooked. Shave them on top of a hot pasta dish or an omelet. The best truffles I’ve ever had were at Guy Savoy’s in Paris, shaved on top of risotto. Minced truffles also lend a sensational flavor to sauces. Steamed asparagus served with a truffle sauce are one of several spectacular appetizers available at Taillevent in Paris
People are curious about truffles because they carry a certain mystery, a certain aura that is absent in other mushrooms. To begin with, truffles are mushrooms. Scarce mushrooms. On top of this, they grow underground in difficult-to-predict locations, so they’re tricky to find. Tricky enough, in fact, that they’re usually tracked using either trained dogs or pigs. Pigs are becoming scarce as truffle-hunters because they’re large and awkward to transport, for one thing. They can also be irascible, and would certainly and happily consume the truffles they find if given the opportunity to do so. Dogs, on the other hand, can be trained to locate the elusive fungi, but are less than interested in dining on them.
The flavor of a truffle is a challenge to describe because it doesn’t taste like anything else. Envision a mature forest with towering trees and a fern-covered floor, with blue-green light filtering through the leafy canopy to the wildflowers below. If you could bottle that impression as if it were a flavor, then it might taste something like a truffle.
Here are a few hints about truffles:
1. Store them in a refrigerator in a paper bag. Never use plastic. Truffles need to “breathe.”
2. Don’t soak them in water unless you intend to use the water for cooking. Water will dissipate their flavor. To clean them, brush away any dirt and rinse very quickly under running water.
3. Truffles lend their flavor to other things that they’re stored with. Eggs, butter, and even whiskey can be infused with truffle flavor. Insert some pieces of truffle into a stick of butter and the butter will assume the flavor of the truffles. Place a truffle in a carton of eggs and leave it overnight. Voila! Truffled eggs. Store a truffle in a bottle of whiskey and the same thing happens.
4. Truffles are usually, but not always, served uncooked. Shave them on top of a hot pasta dish or an omelet. The best truffles I’ve ever had were at Guy Savoy’s in Paris, shaved on top of risotto. Minced truffles also lend a sensational flavor to sauces. Steamed asparagus served with a truffle sauce are one of several spectacular appetizers available at Taillevent in Paris
posted by JTH at 12:00 PM
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