What is the white truffle? Introducing this precious edible fungus
The white truffle is a wild plant fungus of the genus Tuber in the family Tuberaceae, similar to shiitake and porcini mushrooms. It was first discovered in 1950, and later became a delicacy at banquets, known as the white diamond. In the 1950s and 1960s, the white truffle king was given by clever Italian truffle merchants as a gift to the most famous people in the world, such as Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Hitchcock, Pavarotti and Gorbachev. The star halo plus the magical effect of white truffle doubled the white truffle's value, making it leap to become a top international ingredient.
The white truffle is a food seasoning, to be eaten raw, no cooking, because the most useful thing is the sweet fragrance of the white truffle, a rich aroma like garlic, which will lose its flavor when exposed to fire. Because the white truffle gives off a rich aroma with a garlic note, ordinary Italians like to eat it with cheese slices or bread, and using it on dishes helps enhance the aroma and taste of the food. Because it can only be dug up by dogs with recognized licenses using their keen sense of smell, and to keep it fresh it can only be stored for about ten days after being dug up, the white truffle is very expensive.
The white truffle itself does not taste particularly special when eaten, but because it gives off a special odor, many people have been fascinated by it since ancient times. In 1825, the famous French gourmet Brillat-Savarin praised truffles as the "diamond of the kitchen" in his book The Physiology of Taste. Europeans rank truffles alongside caviar and foie gras as the "three great delicacies of the world", and they are one of the noble ingredients, especially the black truffle from France and the white truffle from Italy, which are rated the highest. Truffles for eating cannot be heated, nor chewed in large bites; they are more like a spice, shaved into extremely thin slices with a special tool and eaten right after shaving. Each time you only need to sprinkle some crumbs on ordinary dishes, and it can produce a world-shaking, earth-changing effect.
The white truffle generally weighs 30 to 40 grams, with a rough brown appearance and a hard texture. After digging it out, just wipe the surface soil clean; there is no need to wash it. To keep it fresh, it is best to eat it within two weeks. The price fluctuates every year, but it is usually between 800 and 1500 US dollars per pound (453 grams). The largest white truffle in history was found in 1951, weighing about 4 pounds, and its price at the time was 5000 US dollars, but 5000 US dollars was, for people who had just finished World War II not long before, a "sky-high price" no matter how you looked at it.
China also produces white truffles, mainly concentrated in the areas around Yunnan and Sichuan. White truffles with higher edible value are mainly divided into two types. Compared with European white truffles, they are slightly smaller, but there is not much difference in the unique odor of white truffles, and the quality of mature white truffles is still excellent. Early domestic white truffles were rejected by the French growers' association because they seized a large share of the European market, so the export price was lower at the time of purchase, but as world white truffle production gradually decreased, its price rose rapidly year by year.
White truffle stands to fine food as Rolls-Royce stands to cars, Versace to fashion, and Chanel No. 5 to perfume, representing the most expensive luxury in the world. Combining a jaw-dropping price, mysterious and magical legends, and a taste like sweet rain, it has always been the object pursued by big spenders around the world, who spare no expense to get close to its "fragrance". In the famous small town of Tuscany in Italy, a main white truffle producing area, Italy's first truffle museum will officially open to visitors on the 13th, telling tourists the legendary story of truffles.