What are truffles? (Not the chocolate kind)?!
What are truffles? (Not the chocolate kind)?
I have been watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and he always mentions how he loves truffles, and it showed him slicing into one, and it looked very weird. I know they are rare, but what exactly are they?
Answers: Truffles are types of mushrooms (there are black truffles and white truffles).
Most truffles grow in the dark temperate forests of France and northern Italy in areas with plenty of moss that provides good insulation. Truffles are very "picky" about their environment; temperature, humidity, light, and nutrients must be just so. To this day, they cannot be commercially cultivated. Additionally, truffles "hide" in the ground and have a very nondescript appearance -- basically, with all the mud sticking to them, they look like pebbles. Only pregnant pigs and certain small dogs can sniff them out. For all these reasons, truffles are rare and expensive.
When brushed clean and sliced, truffles have a very distinct, peculiar aroma and flavor. They are used in VERY small quantities for flavoring -- not as other more common mushrooms. It's not like you take a bunch of truffles and sauté them with onions or something. A medium-sized truffle will probably suffice to prepare a dish for 8 people or so. In fact, if you use too much truffle, your dish will actually smell rather unpleasant. But in small quantities, truffles are divine. A touch of Perigord truffle will turn a humble plate of scrambled eggs into a dish fit for a king. For the most part, however, truffles are used to flavor delicate dressings and sauces, or shaved on top of a dish for a finishing touch on the aroma. They are a type of fungus, or mushroom often found in northern Italy and in France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tuber_(genu... Extremely expensive mushrooms that grow at the roots of trees. They are said to have a very disctinctive flavor. They use pigs to find them underground They are some type of mushroom with a very distinct woody flavor, that's why you only have to use a little bit. Some time in France they are called black gold, french region produces black truffles, and Italian side more white type, they are fungi that are collected by using hugs or hunting dogs, very Delicious it cost a fortune, you could find them in a processed cans as pates or fois grass, it is best if you drink white wine or champagne with truffels, bon appetite.
try this website:www.FrenchSelections.c...
http://www.frenchselections.com/database... a fungus that grows underground near the roots of certain trees, usually oaks generally spherical in shape various sizes with a thick rough wrinkled skin. mushrooms that grow underground, they are very expensive