Uncovering Truffles: Nature's Hidden Gourmet Treasure

Aisha Moon
Sep 10
3 min read

Truffle: the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus

A Gift of Zeus to Earth?

History tells us that as early as 2000 BCE, the Amorites who lived in Mesopotamia and Syria dug out and ate truffles. The truffle-eating habits of the Amorites were seen as barbaric by the neo-Sumerians, who were unfamiliar with the rich taste of truffles. There is mention in historical documents that in 3000 BCE, the Babylonians went truffle hunting on beaches and deserts. In the modern world, truffles remain one of the most coveted and delectable foods.

The ancient Greeks loved truffles and the tradition of truffle hunting is still alive in Greece. Truffles are historically known to have aphrodisiac powers, mythologically a favourite of the love goddess Aphrodite herself, and lauded as divine as they are supposed to have been born when the Greek King of Gods, Zeus, struck the earth with thunderbolts.

The Périgord Fairy Tale

The Périgord region of France has a popular fairy tale that tells another story about the origin of truffles. A woman lost in the woods finds an old man who, though very poor, treats her to his humble meal of burnt potatoes. The woman was a fairy, and she turned the potatoes on the plate into tasty truffles. The old man becomes rich selling them but when he dies, his children turn into greedy and lazy lot. The fairy came back after many years. The children of the old man do not offer her food thus making her angry. She hides the truffles under the soil and turns the arrogant offspring of the old man into pigs. Now they have to run around and labour to find the truffles again.

Truffle Hunting

Ancient people used pigs for truffle hunting but once the pigs found them, it was difficult to keep the find safe from being eaten by the pigs themselves. Pigs love truffles.

Nowadays, dogs with special training do the part, and the hunters no longer have to worry about their harvest being eaten instantaneously. Dogs, unlike pigs, have little interest in this human delicacy. Since 1985, Italy has banned the use of pigs for truffle hunting due to their tendency to damage the delicate truffle habitats in their excitement.

There are black truffles and white ones. They grow connecting themselves to the roots of certain trees-the birches, oaks and some more. France and Italy are known for the best quality wild truffles. During the Middle Ages and in the renaissance period especially, truffles were royal treats and coveted gifts.

The Luxury Food

In Europe, good quality truffles cost 3000 euros per kilo. Of the approximately 80 varieties of truffles in the world, only 7 can be cultivated, which significantly increases their price. Only in 1815 did someone find a way to cultivate truffles; Joseph Talon, a small farmer of Coragnes, a hamlet in southeastern France, had the ingenuity to find the connection between the truffles he found in his area and the roots of the holm oak trees that grew there. He uprooted a few acorns off the holm oaks and planted them in the barren land he owned. It takes 8 years for truffles to grow and though we do not know exactly how Talon managed to be patient all those long years, we know that he became the first successful farmer to cultivate and harvest truffles. Many tasty varieties of truffle still elude farming; they just do not grow when you try to cultivate them.

Truffle Hunting: An Intangible Cultural Heritage

In 2021, truffle hunting in Italy has been included in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list by UNESCO. Tuscany in Italy is known for truffle hunting as a tourist attraction. The trained dogs go about the trees in the forest sniffing the ground. Once the dog finds a truffle, it starts digging. But the owner stops the dog and carefully extracts the truffle from the ground using a small spade. Before extraction, the hunter often sniffs it out for the ripened aroma. If it is too young as is detected from the scent, the hunter has to leave it behind for harvesting on a later day. It is this special aroma to the raw truffles that makes them an uncooked addition to many food palates. They are used shaven or grated with the skin as and when the dish demands. Before we conclude, let us remember that chocolate truffles got their name from their similarity to natural truffles.