Truffle FAQ - Historical References, Titbits, Myth and Lore

Fungus Before Chocolate: The History Of The "Truffle" by Daniel Wheeler (http://www.oregonwhitetruffles.com)
Truffle Factoids: compiled by Tanith Tyrr
The Aprhodisiacal Lore of Truffles by Tanith Tyrr
Tuckahoe - The Alberta Truffle by Angela Gottfred
Truffles In Ancient Rome by Steve Mercer and Rex Swartzendruber
Truffles Among The Greeks by Cindy Renfrow
Some Truffle Fun: by Matt Hicks and wombat (Wade Lee)

Fungus Before Chocolate: The History Of The Truffle

by Daniel Wheeler, CEO Oregon White Truffles

During the Kuwait War, some Kuwaitis were more upset over the loss of truffles than they were the ransacking of their country.

During the 1700s, there was a sudden influx of new foods and cooking techniques brought into the new world. Among these was the discovery of chocolate (actually 1600's, but who's paying attention?). Accordingly, chocolate became something of a rage in Europe. However, truffles were still reserved for those who could either find them, or could buy them. Few people could afford them.

Then an enterprising person found that a truffle could be preserved for some time in either brandy or port. These liquors would then absorb some of the truffle aroma/essence/esthers, and allowed the creation of chocolate shells, into which small quantities of this liquid were poured, then sealed with a bit of chocolate. Suddenly the taste and aromas of both truffles and chocolate could be enjoyed together.

Some truffles even smell like chocolate. Geopora cooperi, or Fuzzy truffle, was a favorite of the late Henry Pavalek, who was long-time North American Truffling Society president. Cooked Geopora tasted, in Henry's words, "like bacon bits with something extra" and was his favorite truffle. As fresh and mature (visible spores under 30x microscope), Geopora has a distinctive odor similar to malted chocolate balls.

Truffle Factoids:

North America has dozens of species of indigenous truffle, the majority of which are not yet fully classified by science or culinary art, and new species are being discovered every year. Many of these new species are edible, some superbly so, and can come in a range of heady and intense aromas and flavors ranging from pungent musk to licorice to tropical fruit. Some of these new North American truffle species as well as look-alike species are poisonous - do not eat any truffle or other wild mushroom that has not been identified by an expert.

In New Zealand, Tuber melanosporum has already been cultured and harvested for commercial sale by growers, and the "kiwi country" may soon become a serious contender in the world truffle market. Ian Hall's New Zealand Truffle Page offers some further information on this project.

The Aphrodisiacal Lore of Truffles

Compiled and written by Tanith Tyrr, with contributions fromCindy Renfrow (renfrow@skylands.net), and quotes from authors Jean Brillet-Savarin and Harold McGee.

This lady goes on in the pages of Brillet-Savarin's work to relate the tale of a sociable supper with a casual acquaintance named Verseuil, a trusted friend of her husband's, whilst her husband was unavoidably detained on a business appointment. "The principal dish of our supper....was a magnificant truffled fowl. The truffles above all were delicious, and you know that I am very fond of them."

After the consumption of this gastronome's dish, she reports that the formerly trustworthy gentleman became "flattering, unreserved, affectionate, caressing," and made advances to her in a sudden and capricious manner. She successfully fights him off and retains her virtue, mainly by flirting with him and being "artful enough to make him believe that all hope was not forbidden to him."

Afterward, she chastises herself for not being sterner. "I ought to have looked sternly at him, and should have rung the bell, raised my voice, made a noise, done in fact everything I did not do. Need I say anything more, sir?" She continues, leading back to a gastronomical note rather than a moral one. "I blame the truffles for this. I am really persuaded that they were the cause of some predisposition, which might have become dangerous; and if I still eat them -- for to abstain wholly from them would have beentoo severe a punishment -- at least I never eat any more of them without being a little careful in the midst of my enjoyment."

Brillet-Savarin concludes the anecdote with an account of further grave and careful research into the subject. "I consulted men in whom professionally great confidence is placed; they formed with me a committee, a tribunal, a senate, a sanhedrim, an areopagus, and we gave the following decision to be commented on by the literary men of the twenty-fifth century: -- "The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but it may under certain circumstances render women more affectionate, and men more amiable."

In the final chapter of his lengthy essay on the physiology of taste and gastronomy, he concludes with a poem alluding to the aphrodisiacal properties of the truffle by M. Boscary de Ville-Plaine, commenting, "Truffles are worshipped now, and perhaps the idolatry does not us much credit."

"To the black truffle drink, for I
Hate the ungrateful worse than hell;
The herb which gives us victory
In that short fight we love so well."

A great deal has been written before and since regarding the aphrodisiacal property of the truffle, and while no hard scientific evidence has yet turned up to support any chemical substance as being a reliable trigger of sexual desire in humans, there is some evidence that some species of truffles produce a pheromonal scent that is a mating trigger in female pigs.

From Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, p. 190: "The several varieties of truffle (species of Tuber) never break above the ground, and must be smelled out by pigs, trained dogs, or goats. German scientists have recently discovered that truffles produce a musky chemical that is also secreted in the male pig's saliva and prompts mating behavior in the sow. The investigators suggest that "the biological role of this boar sex pheromone might explain the efficient interest of pigs in search of this delicacy."

"Human interest in truffles may also owe something to this hormone: men secrete it in their underarm sweat... The rich, almost meaty flavor of the fungi and their ability to intensify the flavor of vegetable dishes are largely due to an abnormally high content of glutamic acid, which makes them a natural version of monosodium glutamate. Mushrooms respire very actively after harvest compared to most produce, and during four days' storage will lose about half of their sugar and starch reserves to chitin."

Cindy Renfrow's note on the glutamic acid content in tubers is that this may also explain the many references to people being sickened by eating truffles, as an allergy to monosodium glutamate is a fairly common one.

The lore of aphrodisiacs is almost universal, diverse and contradictory as well as rich in varying local traditions and superstitions. Bizzare unguents ranging from powdered crocodile dung to burned mouse bones to a tea made from dried turtle heads have been reputed to increase male potency or female receptiveness, and there seems to be a strong tendency throughout recorded history to attribute aphrodisiacal qualities to any new, unusual or recently introduced foods.

For instance, the now common potato was reputed to have such properties when it was first introduced in some parts of Europe and America, and the tomato was referred to as the "Love Apple" in Elizabethan England when it was a rare and still somewhat suspicious food. Today, the ready availability and familiarity of these foods lead few people to suspect that they have such unusual properties - and considering the quantity in which they are consumed by unwitting eaters today, perhaps it is a good thing that there is no scientific evidence that these superstitions had any truth to them.

In particular in cultures which consider sexual activity taboo or degrading, the social phenomenon of the aphrodisiac or love potion was a useful device with which to justify taboo-breaking. An individual who had transgressed against the cultural standards by comitting an act of sexual profligacy lost less social status if it could be claimed that they had succumbed to a potent magical or chemical influence rather than their own desires. So a belief in the efficaciousness of aphrodisiacs did serve a distinct social function in the sexually repressive society.

Do truffles actually have aprodisiacal properties? The answer is a qualified yes, in that a chemical they produce is a proven mating trigger in sows. Whether a porcine pheromone has any effect on the human libido is yet to be proven, and in addition, there are too many social and behavioral factors influencing human sexuality to consider any strictly chemical trigger to be any reliable indice of behavior.

But then again, a fine dinner by candlelight, the sweet shaving of white truffles over a perfectly creamy risotto, a tender, blood-rare filet wrapped with wild boar bacon and drenched in black truffle cream, a glass of magnificent Bordeaux, and surely the atmosphere of romance might well accomplish what the chemical alone cannot. Even if the truffle has no aphrodisiacal properties in and of itself, it is still a dish for lovers.

Truffles In Ancient Rome

More Tastes Of Truffles In Rome

by Rex Swartzendruber (rexs13@open.org)

Note to Rex - I tried to link to your web page, but it was a dead link. If you read this, please provide your contact information so that I can offer you credit.

From "A Taste Of Ancient Rome" by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa published by the University of Chicago Press. On pages 64 and 65:

"(The Romans) ate mushrooms raw in salads, boiled and covered with sauce, or cooked directly in a sauce or on a grill. There was even a special serving dish called a 'boletarium' or 'boletar.'"

Although it is not always possible to determine what varieties of mushrooms they ate from the names they used, undoubtedly there were boletus or cepes (which the Romans called 'suilli'), morels ('morchellae'), different edible agarics (including meadow mushrooms and the amanita Caesarea), and ash tree mushrooms ('fungi farnei'), which seem to be a variety of those mushrooms the Italaians today call 'polipori.' The Greeks and perhaps the Romans even attempted to cultivate mushrooms, but they were unsuccessful."

Truffles have been prized by those with discerning palates at least since the Roman times. The Romans served black and white truffles as appetizers and in salads seasoned with various herbs and garum (fermented fish sauce). Then, as now, a gift of a truffle gave honor to the recipient and to the giver.

This information included with information that I already have leads me to the following conclusions:

Truffles have been collected in the same areas for over 2000 years. Truffle spots are handed down through the generations. They have been marketed where ever they could be shipped. Due to the limited amount produced, truffles have long been considered the domain of the rich.

The families and businesses that have been marketing truffles for the past two millenia say that any truffles not found in Europe are inferior. This is to be expected as they have been the exclusive marketers of truffles for so long and they no doubt feel as though they must protect their markets.

Rex Swartzendruber
rexs13@open.org
http://www.open.org/rexs13/

Truffles Among The Greeks

Contributed by Cindy Renfrow http://www.alcasoft/renfrow/

"Mushrooms. -Aristias: "With champing of champignons the stony ground resounded." Poliochus: "Both of us broke a bit of black barley bread, with chaff mixed in the kneading, twice a day, and had a few figs; sometimes, too, there would be a braised mushroom, and if there were a little dew we'd catch a snail, or we'd have some native vegetables or a crushed olive, and some wine to drink of dubious quality."

Antiphanes: "Our dinner is a barley cake bristling with chaff, cheaply prepared, and perhaps one iris-bulb or a dainty dish of sow-thistle or mushroom or any other poor thing that the place affords us poor creatures. That is our mode of life, without heat, without excitement. Nobody eats thyme when meat is to be had, not even they who profess to be Pythagorean vegetarians." And going on he says:"For who among us knows the future, or what any of our friends is doomed to suffer? Take then these two mushrooms gathered from the ilex and bake them quickly."....

[From] Antiphanes...Proverbs..."For if I should touch any of your food, I should feel as if I had eaten raw mushrooms or puckery apples or whatever food there is that chokes."

Mushrooms grow on the ground, and few of them are edible. Most of them cause death by choking. Hence Epicharmus said in jest: "You are like mushrooms: you will dry me up and choke me to death." Nicander in the Georgics gives a list of the poisonous varieties in these lines: "Deadly pains are laid up in store on the olive-tree, the pomegranate, the ilex, and the oak, the choking weight of swelling mushrooms which adhere to them." But he also says that "when you hide deep in dung the stalk of a fig-tree and water it with ever-running streams, mushrooms will grow at the base and be harmless; from it cut not away at the root of the mushroom thus grown." (The rest was illegible.)

"And at the same time you shall steam some amanita mushrooms," says the same Nicander in the same work. Ephippus has a line running: "That I, like a mushroom, might choke you." Eparchides says that the poet Euripides, on a visit to Icaros, wrote an epigram on a woman who, with her children, two grown-up males and an unmarried daughter, ate some poisonous mushrooms in a field, and died by asphyxiation along with her children. This is the epigram:"O god of the sun, who dost traverse the eternal vault of the sky, have thine eyes ever beheld like woe? A mother and her daughter un-wed, with brothers twain, dead on the same fateful day!"

Diocles of Carystus, in Book i. of his Health, says: "Wild vegetables fit to boil are the beet, mallow, sorrel, nettle, orach, iris-bulbs, truffles, and mushrooms." ...Diphilus says that mushrooms have a good taste, are laxative and nourishing, but may cause indigestion and flatulence. Such especially are those which come from the island of Ceos. "Many, however, cause death, but those seem to be proper to eat which are very thin, tender, and friable, growing on elms and pine-trees. Unfit to eat are those which are black, livid, and hard, or which become tough after boiling and serving; when these are eaten they are fatal. A good antidote is a draught of hydromel, or honey-vinegar, or soda and vinegar. Vomiting should follow the drink. Hence mushrooms ought to be prepared in the first instance with vinegar, or with honey and vinegar, or honey or salt alone, since in this way the choking element is removed."

And Theophrastus, in the History of Plants, writes: "Such plants grow in some cases underground, in other cases on the ground; among the latter are what some call peziae ('puff-balls'), which occur among mushrooms. For they also, as it happens, have no roots; but the mushroom has a lengthy stalk like an adherescent growth, and roots extend from it." He also says that in the region of the sea round the Pillars of Heracles, whenever it rains copiously, mushrooms grow by the sea which are turned into stone by the action of the sun...

Theophrastus in the Plants, again: "Smooth skinned flora, like the truffle, mushroom, puff-ball, and crane-truffle." Truffles. -These also grow spontaneously in the ground, chiefly in sandy places. And Theophrastus says of them: "The truffle (which some call crane-truffle) and any other underground plant." And again: "This is also the mode of growth and the physical habit of these underground plants, such as the truffle, and the fungus which grows in Cyrene and is called misy. This is regarded as very good, and it has the odour of meat, like the oiton which grows in Thrace. Concerning these a singular fact is mentioned; it is said, namely, that they grow when the autumn rains come with severe thunderstorms; the more thundering there is, the more they grow, the presumption being that this is the more important cause. They are not perennial, but come up every year, and the proper time to use them is in the spring, when they are at their height. Nevertheless some suppose that they have a seed origin. For on the coast of Mitylene, they say, truffles do not grow until a heavy rain comes and the seed is washed down from Tiarae. Now this is a place in which they grow plentifully. And they are more apt to occur on the seashore and wherever the ground is sandy, as it is in Tiarae. They also grow in the Abarnis district near Lampsacus, in Alopeconnesus, and in Elis."...Pamphilus, in his Dialect Lexicon, uses the term hydnophyllum of the grass which grows over truffles, by which they are detected."

(Mycologist Daniel Wheeler's comment: "hydnophyllum" means "water plant", and is an apt description of a common watery plant found in brulees, which are areas where truffles fruiting underground have robbed other plants of water. Evidently this one plant survives without harm.)

From the introduction: "Athenaeus, whose Deipnosophistae, or The Sophists at Dinner, is the oldest cookery-book that has come down to us, was a native of Naucratis in Egypt. He lived in Rome at the end of the second and the beginning of the third century after Christ... the completion of the Deipnosophistae may be dated not long after 228."

C. Renfrow
renfrow@skylands.net
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/

Some Truffle Fun:

Learn more about Truffles in History
Back to the Truffle Culinary FAQ
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See a photo of some Oregon white truffles courtesy of Daniel Wheeler.

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