Truffles – Passionate Fruits of Jupiter’s Wrath

The Romans believed that they were created by Jupiter throwing a thunderbolt near an oak tree. Since this god was known for his pronounced sexual drive, they immediately attributed aphrodisiac properties to them. They called them the sons of the earth and a wonder of nature. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that witches ate them, and even today there are people who claim that they are easiest to find with the help of specially trained pigs.

These are some of the myths about truffles, the most expensive and highly valued mushrooms in gastronomy, to the extent that the production of butter, olive oil, salami, cheeses, honey, and sea salt with truffle aromas, as well as truffle paste, a mixture of mushrooms, truffles, olive oil, salt, citric acid, and garlic, has become a more lucrative business than the uncertain search for real truffles. In most of these products, the aroma is synthetic. Therefore, anyone who wants to enjoy the true smell and taste of truffles should seek the real mushroom, not its substitutes. And for that, one does not need to go to the vicinity of Motovun – truffles can be found throughout Croatia, in the forests of pedunculate and swamp oaks where they grow near their roots.

Nothing without a dog

Agronomist and mushroom expert Prof. Dr. Romano Božac digs them up in Maksimir, near the Faculty of Agriculture, and has repeatedly stated that besides along the rivers of Istria, Mirna, Dragonja, Pazinčica, and Raša, white truffles also grow along the banks of the Sava, Una, Bosut, and Spačva. In Podravina, there are black truffles, and the story about the whites from a few years ago turned out to be inaccurate. A woman found two mushrooms resembling white truffles peeking out of the ground in a forest near Koprivnica; they weighed a total of 145 grams. She tried to sell them, potential buyers confirmed that they were indeed white truffles, but they did not offer a price that would satisfy her. Later, it became clear why. Dr. Božac revealed that it was a similar mushroom, the tuber, which is a wavy fleshy fungus that grows half-buried in the ground, unlike truffles which are entirely below the surface, at depths of 10 to 30 centimeters. Because of this, it is almost impossible to search for them without dogs, and not just any dogs. They need to be trained from the moment they can walk, and the best are those of the Lagotto Romagnolo breed. It is a common belief that the dog searches for truffles because they are tasty, but the real reward for them is the treat they will receive from their owner. And when they find them, they must not damage them, so it is not surprising that truffle hunters pay for a well-trained tracker with dry gold, or thousands of euros. That is why pigs love truffles, and they are no longer used, if they ever were – they would eat most of the found truffles themselves. In the vicinity of Obrovac, goats dig the ground in search of truffles. Goat herders mostly leave this delicacy to them because they say that truffle buyers offer them too little. The story of better organization in the harvesting and marketing of Dalmatian truffles has also gained momentum, especially after Dr. Božac discovered white truffles with his dogs.

Taste Madness

In the last century, it was said that there were about ten species of truffles in the world, but by 2009, the number had exceeded 60. Of these, 25 grew in Istria and Italy, and nine were edible. Today, more than 80 species are mentioned. Average consumers, however, only divide them into white and black, and the difference, as evident as in color, is also clear in price. White truffles in Europe are sold for several thousand euros per kilogram, while black ones are ‘only’ a few hundred. In gastronomy, white truffles are used exclusively raw, as a seasoning. They have an extremely intense flavor, so the dishes they are served with must be simpler and more neutral. They are most often thinly sliced and placed on fine homemade pasta or fritaja.

The basic ingredient that white truffles season must not be aromatic. They pair very well with, for example, monkfish fillet, but connoisseurs have also experimented with stronger flavored meats. The former chef of the Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb, Maltese Jeffrey Vella, excellently incorporated them into tortellini filled with blood sausage and served with artichoke cream. White truffles are also used in desserts. They are a perfect addition to chocolate soufflé.

Black truffles, on the other hand, do not lose too many of their basic properties with thermal processing, so they can be cooked or baked, and they are often found in sauces and meat rolls. They can also sweeten life. Jeffrey Vella, who has been running the Portrait restaurant in Dubrovnik since this year, mixed them into honey cream in his recipe book from the time of Esplanade and served them with crumble, a traditional British crumbly pastry, and lavender ice cream.

And what wine?

When it comes to pairing with wines, it is hard to state rules because much depends on the ingredients with which truffles are served. The famous Catalan chef Ferran Adrià prepared a dinner last year with 14 courses featuring white truffles, served exclusively with Dom Perignon champagne, from vintages between 2006 and 1998. There were goose liver, tuna, veal, caviar…

With the aforementioned monkfish with truffles, I drank Krauthaker’s unfiltered Sauvignon, a full-bodied wine with somewhat closed aromas, which paired well with the dish because it is not good to clash the aromas of food and wine. The winemaker, and former restaurateur, Marino Markežić Kabola from Momjan recommends Malvasia wines with simpler truffle dishes because they have a nice but delicate aroma. In the Italian Piedmont, which, ignoring our Istria, boasts the title of the world capital of white truffles, they serve local wine, an aged Barbera d’Alba, with the local version of steak tartare. Therefore, we could serve a mature Teran, like those from Coronica, Kabola, or Benvenuti, with raw red meat and white truffles. Dishes with truffles are generally extremely fine, so one should think carefully about which wine will make them even better, as that is the goal of pairing. In fine restaurants, the choice can certainly be left to the sommeliers. After all, they have, if they do their job well, participated in creating the menu and know best what they have in the wine cellar.

Noble White Truffle

• Season: from mid-September to the end of January.
• Tuber magnatum Pico, the most valued, noble white truffle, is round but often irregular and flattened, pale yellow, sometimes ochre, covered with dark red spots. It can grow to the size of an apple, but every year some heavier than a kilogram is found.
• It is found in the northern and central regions of Italy and in Istria.
• The smell is strong to some, mild to others, somewhat reminiscent of garlic.
• It is served raw, grated into slices that season the dish. It is extremely expensive.
• The white truffle weighing 1.31 kilograms that Giancarlo Zigante found in 1999 in the Mirna Valley was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world, but in 2014, the auction house Sotheby’s in New York auctioned a white truffle from northern Italy weighing 1.89 kilograms. It was sold for $61,250.

Noble Black Truffle

• Season: from early November to mid-March.
• Tuber melanosporum Vitt is dark black, round, and sometimes divided into lobes. It is the size of an apple, rarely larger.
• It grows in Italy, Spain, and France, where it is valued more than other black truffles. Its smell is reminiscent of somewhat rotten strawberries. Before consumption, it is usually briefly boiled.

Summer Black Truffle

• Season: from early May to the end of October.
• Tuber aestivum Vittaldini is black, round or slightly rounded.
• It is collected in the central areas of southern Europe and in the wooded parts of northern Africa. It is almost never larger than an apple. It smells of earth, and it is found in many places in larger quantities, so it is not very expensive.

Winter Black Truffle

• Season: from early October to mid-March.
• It is black and Tuber brumale Vitaldini, like the summer truffle, but does not grow larger than a chicken egg.
• It is often confused with the noble black truffle, but it is not as tasty or valued. It is found in the central areas of southern Europe.