FoodFood InformationMushrooms
Black Truffle A.K.A.: Perigord Truffle, French Truffle
Flavor and Texture: penetrating, sweet musty odor; rough, ridged skin.
Description: blue-black flesh with fine whitish veins embedded inside. Note:to use a truffle, brush the dirt away or run the truffle under cool waterbriefly. They keep well in rice. The regions of Perigord and Magny are theworld-famous homes of these prized mushrooms. They grow 6-12 inches belowground on the roots of sycamore, oak or beech trees. From spore to maturity.the truffle takes 10-12 years to reach full flavor maturity. which is largelywhy they're so expensive, fluctuating around $400 per pound. The truffleemits a chemical odor which is very similar to a male swine's sex pheromone,explaining why female pigs naturally sought them out. Recent evidence hasshown that the truffle's special chemistry may also be related to a hormonepresent in human male sweat glands, perhaps explaining why people have persistentlysought them out as well! Attempts to farm truffles in Texas and Californiahave largely failed. Grafting techniques in which truffle spores are inoculatedon choice trees have yielded less aromatic truffles with nowhere near theflavor of the wild fungus. There are over 60 different varieties of truffleand some do grow wild in the United States But the two choice varietiesare unequivocally the black and white truffles discussed here, native onlyto specific regions of Europe.