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Truffles
Truffles are the most expensive of the world’s natural foods. The seasons greatly affect the availability of this ambrosial and aromatic fungal delicacy, particularly among the highest end of gourmet appreciation, meaning that for much of the year it is simply impossible to get hold of the prestigious White Alba and Périgord truffles. This, in addition to truffles’ scarcity and the hit and miss methods of tracking them down when ripe, has made the tuber a unique and coveted entity in the eyes of global gourmands. Even in the ages of ancient Greece and Rome truffles were of significant praise, with references to their fragrance and flavour cropping up in the writings of Socrates and early Bible works.
Back then, much the same as now, truffles were hunted and tracked down by humans led by sows, who become sexually aroused by the truffles’ scent. Quick work must be made by the
hunter to ensure that the pig – keenly disposed towards eating anything edible and particularly something that represents the essence of a male mate – doesn’t find the truffle first. Dogs have also been trained to sniff out these subterranean treasures and have proved much more successful at resisting a nibble!
The most esteemed of the truffle species are the black and white varieties that grow respectively in in the forests and on the slopes of south eastern France and Italy’s Piedmont province. Other locations in the Mediterranean such as Spain and Croatia have small growth patterns, but the Franco-Italian border is the true region of truffle riches.
We use local and international suppliers to source an array of truffles when they are at their freshest.
Seasonality chart
Truffles
Bianchetto spring truffle
Black
Chinese truffle
Black
winter truffle
Burgundy truffle
Périgord truffle
Summer truffle
White Alba truffle
found in
Tuber Italy albidum
Jan Feb
Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug
Sep Oct
Nov Dec
Tuber indicum
Tuber brumale
Tuber uncinatum
Tuber melanosporum
Tuber aestivum
Provincial China
Southern France
Europe
Périgord France
Mediterranean
Tuber Piedmont magnatum Italy
www.shoresolutions.fr truffles fruit & vegetables