Canberra
ASK a gourmet what a truffle tastes like and you鈥檒l hear enough sumptuous
adjectives to make a wine snob blush. Some say the flavour is woody, feral and
earthy. Others talk of musk, walnuts, garlic, rum, liquorice, even sex. All
agree, however, that the truffle is a culinary gem on a par with foie gras and
caviar, capable of turning even the most humble of dishes into a glamorous
feast.
I tasted my first truffle in a Melbourne restaurant, cooked in a simple
risotto. It was rich and nutty and reminded me of Vegemite. Perhaps I betray my
Australian taste buds, but that鈥檚 the kind of, ahem, earthy description you
might have to get used to in future.
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A few years ago you could have bet your bottom dollar that the truffle in my
risotto was a wild fungus from France, Italy or Spain, grubbed out of the ground
by a dog or a pig in the dead of winter. But not any more. After a steep and
mysterious decline in Europe鈥檚 wild truffle population, agricultural scientists
have come to the rescue and tamed the truffle. Now the majority of France鈥檚
truffles are farmed, and landowners in other countries have started growing
their own too, with Australia and New Zealand leading the charge.
There are a dozen or more species of edible truffle worldwide. The most
revered is the P茅rigord black, Tuber melanosporum, also known as
black gold or black diamond. Its natural home is the forests of southern France,
northern Italy and north-eastern Spain, where it lives underground in symbiosis
with the roots of oak, hazel and chestnut trees. In the spring, truffles mate
and form small fruiting bodies. These swell and ripen throughout summer and
autumn and by midwinter they鈥檙e the size of a golf ball and ready to eat.
Europe鈥檚 black truffle harvest starts in early December and lasts for four
months. During the season, gourmets guzzle as much as they can afford and
sky-high demand pushes prices up to 拢600 a kilogram. Then it鈥檚 over. For
the rest of the year, connoisseurs have to resort to preserved truffles, usually
canned or frozen, which have a flavour far inferior to that of the fresh fungus.
鈥淲hen you pull a truffle out of the ground, it鈥檚 sweet, it鈥檚 strong, it鈥檚
earthy,鈥� says Tim Pak Poy, owner and head chef at Claude鈥檚 Restaurant in Sydney.
鈥淚f it鈥檚 not fresh, you鈥檙e missing all that fragrance.鈥�
Declining harvest
The French have revelled in truffles for thousands of years. Traditional
foragers, or trufficulteurs, used pigs or trained dogs to sniff out the wild
fungus (female pigs are best because the smell of a ripe truffle approximates to
male pig pheromones, but many trufficulteurs lost fingers trying to stop their
overexcited sow from scoffing the spoils). Trufficulteurs developed ways to coax
more truffles out of the earth, such as taking saplings from proven truffle
grounds and planting them elsewhere, but on the whole the growing areas, or
truffi猫res, were left to their own devices.
However, about a hundred years ago wild harvests started to decline. At the
end of the 19th century an average season yielded 1000 tonnes of black truffles.
Now 50 tonnes is considered a bumper crop.
No one鈥檚 sure what has gone wrong but there are plenty of ideas. One theory
is that traditional knowledge of truffles and truffling was lost during the two
world wars. Overharvesting, deforestation, acid rain, the intensification of
agriculture and pesticides have also been blamed.
Whatever the reason, in the early 1970s, French trufficulteurs realised
something was wrong and begged agricultural scientists for help. Led by
G茅rard Chevalier from the National Institute for Agronomic Research in
Clermont-Ferrand, researchers learned how to reliably infect young oak and hazel
trees with spores of T. melanosporum.
As with all things truffle-related, the inoculation technology is a closely
guarded secret. 鈥淐rudely, it鈥檚 a matter of germinating some acorns and tipping
spores over the top,鈥� says Peter Stahle, chairman of the Victoria-based truffle
grower Tuber Australis.
The basic requirement is to bring truffle spores and tree roots together so
they can develop the symbiotic relationship that leads to beautiful offspring.
In nature, this matchmaking happens when animal excrement containing truffle
spores comes into contact with tree roots. Nowadays the spores are cultured in a
lab or extracted from a ripe truffle, then dabbed directly onto the roots of a
cultivated seedling. Everything is done under sterile conditions to minimise
contamination from other fungi.
Once the seedlings are inoculated they鈥檙e planted in close-packed rows, two
hazels for every oak, and left to mature. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you the details of what
we do,鈥� says Ian Hall, the founder of New Zealand鈥檚 truffle industry, who works
for New Zealand Crop and Food Research in Mosgiel. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l get the same response
from anywhere in the world.鈥�
However it鈥檚 done, it seems to work. Inoculated seedlings are more reliable
at producing truffles than those left to nature. What鈥檚 more, they produce their
first truffles after only 5 to 10 years. Wild trees take at least 15 years, if
they make it at all. In France, 80 per cent of truffles now come from regulated
plantations and the technology has helped stabilise the harvest.
Being precious about their culture in general and their cuisine in
particular, the French tried to keep the inoculation technology to themselves.
But news of their success leaked out. Agricultural scientists, through a mixture
of espionage and experimentation, worked out how to inoculate trees for
themselves. In 1993, the world鈥檚 first non-European black truffle emerged from
the soil of a plantation in North Carolina.
It鈥檚 in Australia and New Zealand, however, that truffle farming has taken
off in a big way. The governments there spotted a mouth-watering business
opportunity: given that their winter coincided with the European summer, they鈥檇
be able to sell fresh truffles in the off season. So they started pouring money
into research.
P茅rigord black truffles require a climate with well-defined but mild
seasons, without heavy frosts. They grow best in chalky soils with good
drainage, ideally with a pH close to 7.9. Areas of southern Australia
meet these requirements perfectly, as do large parts of New Zealand, although
here the acidic soils need treating with lime. In a 1996 report to the Rural
Industries Research and Development Corporation, Stahle identified more than
100,000 hectares of suitable truffi猫re land in New South Wales and
Victoria alone. 鈥淚n some instances, conditions in Australia are even better than
elsewhere for growing truffles,鈥� says Nick Malajczuk, managing director of
Treetec Consulting in Western Australia.
In 1993, New Zealand produced the southern hemisphere鈥檚 first P茅rigord
black truffle, on the Oaklands Truffi猫re near Gisborne. The first
commercial harvest was in 1997. New Zealand now has six truffi猫res
producing commercial quantities and further large plantations are being
established. The record harvest so far, in 2000, weighed in at 65 kilograms.
In Australia, Tasmania has led the way. A private firm, P茅rigord
Truffles of Tasmania, established a truffi猫re in 1993 and harvested its
first black truffle in 1999. The island now has 28 truffi猫res and six of
them produced truffles this year, though not in commercial quantities. Many more
truffi猫res are now being established on the mainland.
Double helping
The prospect of a double helping of fresh fungi every year has some gourmets
smacking their lips in anticipation. Alessandra Zambonelli, a truffle expert
from the University of Bologna in Italy, is captivated by the idea of eating
fresh truffles in summer. She says there鈥檚 simply no comparison between a fresh
truffle and a preserved one. She also says southern hemisphere truffles won鈥檛
threaten the established market.
Pierre-Jean P茅beyre, head of the P茅beyre family truffle
merchant in Cahors, France, reckons that Antipodean truffles will go down a
storm. 鈥淚 do not see why the French would not eat southern hemisphere truffles
if they are fresh and good,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e drink the good-quality wines you
produce, don鈥檛 we?鈥�
But there are mumblings of discontent鈥攁nd most of them come from the
southern hemisphere. Simon Johnson, Australia鈥檚 leading wholesaler of European
truffles, fears that Antipodean growers will destroy what the French call la
grande mystique of the truffle. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l lose their charm if they鈥檙e available
year-round,鈥� he says. And with the increase in supply will come a decrease in
price. Syd Weddell, managing director of The Vital Ingredient, a gourmet food
shop in Melbourne, says he won鈥檛 sell Antipodean truffles until they match the
quality of preserved European ones.
The proof of the pudding, however, is in the eating. Tim Pak Poy is the only
chef to have cooked and served both French and Australian truffles. 鈥淏oth have a
wonderful sweetness,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say that one鈥檚 better than the
other.鈥� For the past two years he鈥檚 held dinners in honour of the Tasmanian
truffle, serving such delicacies as truffled mud crab and runner beans boiled in
truffle vodka. The verdict? 鈥淛ust bloody marvellous,鈥� says veteran Australian
food writer Max Lake.
* * *
Classic truffle recipes
Truffle omelette
This shows just how pervasive the truffle鈥檚 aroma is. Place 4 unbroken eggs
and a fresh truffle in a sealed container and leave in the fridge for 48 hours.
The eggs become infused with the truffle aroma and can be made into an omelette
in the usual way. Use the truffle in another dish.
Tournedos Rossini
- Ingredients (Serves 4)
- 100 grams butter
- 4 slices foie gras
- 4 slices good bread, without crusts
- 4 fillet steaks
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
- 2 truffles, sliced
- For the sauce:
- 1陆 tablespoons Madeira
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 250 millilitres stock
- Salt and pepper to taste
First prepare the sauce. Mix the Madeira and cornflour to make a paste. Bring
the stock to the boil and gradually whisk the paste into the hot stock. Return
to the boil, whisking constantly, and then simmer until thick enough to coat the
back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.
In a small skillet melt 30 grams of the butter and gently saut茅 the
foie gras.
In a separate skillet melt another 30 grams of butter and fry the bread until
browned on both sides.
Remove the bread and keep warm. Melt the rest of the butter, add the olive
oil and saut茅 the garlic until it begins to brown. Remove and discard the
garlic then add the steaks and fry so that the meat is browned on the outside
and pink on the inside. Place each steak on a piece of the bread.
In the skillet in which the meat was fried, briefly saut茅 the
truffles. Lay the foie gras and truffles on top of the steak. Add the Madeira
sauce to the pan and heat through. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve
immediately.