30
Oct
10 Things I didn’t know about Black Truffles
- Australia hosts far more truffle-like species than Europe or anywhere else in the world. Around 300 species are documented here in Australia however recent field work estimates this number
to rise exponentially to an estimated 1200-2400. Europe, in (odious) comparison, has only a couple of hundred. Unfortunately, reports to date indicate our native truffles are no taste sensation (unless you’re a Potoroo) – but who knows what might be discovered in the wildly extreme and undocumented 1200-2400 truffles?
- I’m constantly surprised at just how many times truffles can crop up in conversation (pun intended) – from Plutarch to Rossini to Monty Python …. And I just had to include Monty Python’s Spam Sketch Menu because I will never be given another opportunity!
Egg and bacon
Egg, sausage and bacon
Egg and Spam
Egg, bacon and Spam
Egg, bacon, sausage and Spam
Spam, bacon, sausage and Spam
Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon and Spam
Spam, Spam, Spam, egg and Spam
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam
Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg on top, and Spam.
For those wishing to re-visit this sketch, here’s the link!
Black truffle has been included in the most unlikely (to my imagination) of products from potato crisps (not such a stretch) to face creams (reputedly preventing a stretch).
- Australia is currently the fourth largest black truffle producer after France, Italy and Spain.
- Black truffle contains glutamic acid which acts as a flavour enhancer in food. A natural MSG!
- The South of England produces a type of summer truffle – I had to include this intensely interesting and perception-changing fact – as I did NOT know and I went to boarding school in Dorset. We spent much (enforced) time traipsing the woods with attendant rain and likely lurking truffles. Had I known I would have enjoyed those walks so much more! Not. Apparently, one family in Wiltshire held the only Royal warrant to hunt for truffles in the UK until as recently as 1930. Since then it’s just been an unmitigated free for all.
- Truffles are a cross between a fungus and a tuber (which is uncoincidentally the Latin word for truffle) so they actually have more in common with a carrot than a fungus.
- Just how many different trees are happy to host a truffle! Depending on the type of truffle, you can find various oak, hazel (and I’m starting with those as these are the ones I did know!) to chestnut, beech, pine, red alder, cottonwood and pecan to name a few and I’m sure there are more!
- I had to bring this up, the elephant in the room. Chocolate truffles originated in 1895 in Chambray, France and are named after truffles because of their appearance, right down to the dusting of cocoa as a form of ‘soil’. Unlike chocolate truffles, you can eat as many black truffles as you like and not become said elephant.
- I did not know how much time I would spend on the mower – yes, I’ve managed to incorporate that again!
Allow me to introduce myself with a quote from Nigella Lawson, “My qualification is as an eater”!
Originally hailing from Hong Kong, I spent my formative years shuttling between one of the most densely populated places on earth and deepest, darkest Dorset, where resided an archaic institution for the gifted and talented - only joking!
I've since discovered that I take to the country just as well as the urban intensity of Hong Kong, London and now Sydney. Somehow I've always managed to blend in. Perhaps I'm a chameleon. But then in some ways, aren't we all?
What does not surprise me is that I’ve ended up at the periphery of the food industry as I have always loved, and have a deep abiding interest in, food in all its glory. And Truffles! I just love truffles. Truffles happily combine with another great love I have, dogs. I feel the need to confess, however, my dogs are not truffle dogs as I’ve raised them much like my children, free range. But then, everyone’s happy!
I love food, I love cooking and I certainly love eating!
A very dear friend introduced me to Ganymede truffle salt and honey on a recent visit from Australia to London. What a marvellous discovery. Our family were truffle ‘newbies’, but what a delicious revelation – truffle salt in scrambled egg elevates the quickly prepared morning brekkie to sublime heights. Truffle honey with cheese – there are hardly words to describe the totally wondrous taste experience. I have since prevailed upon visiting Australian friends to bring more over with them when they visit!! Reading Wendy’s witty and expressive blog brings the farm in NSW to life for us Brits, it sounds like a totally magical place and as a bee lover – with a small London garden, so no hope of a hive(!!), I love reading about Ganymede’s hives. As a side note, I actually laughed out loud on the bus to work reading about the centrifuge and arm toning – the need to tone the arms being a common problem that ladies of a certain age. Thank you Ganymede for your fabulous products and your witty and informative posts.