Truffles cannot be farmed, which is one of the reasons they are so expensive. The price of white truffles fluctuates from year to year, but usually ranges between $800 and $1,500 per pound (453 grams).
Truffles, along with caviar, champagne, oysters and foie gras, mark the most expensive luxury in food. Their price is as much a draw for crowds of diners as their flavor.
The white truffle is often called the white diamond. One reason for this is that, like diamonds, they look plain and even a little ugly before they are carved and processed. When first dug up, the white truffle looks like a crude, dusty potato. But once cut, it reveals its marbled, ivory-colored pattern and its intoxicating aroma. The heavenly flavor of the white truffle comes mainly from its aroma, so it is usually not heated. The most common way to eat it is to slice it very thinly, serve it with fresh egg lasagna and then with a well-mixed Italian sauce, which is still as delicious as you can imagine.
Truffles are called "diamonds" by the French, and are valued alongside caviar, foie gras, and other fine foods as the "Big Three" of gastronomy. The unique flavor inherent in truffles has made them an extremely valuable condiment in French and Italian cuisine. The largest white truffle in history was found in 1951, weighing about 4 pounds and selling for about $5,000 at the time. In the days shortly after World War II, $5,000 was a lot of money.
In 2004, the United States held a "Truffle Auction" with truffles as the ultimate foodstuff, using an Internet video link with major restaurants in New York and Los Angeles to allow gourmets in the two cities to place bids. In this auction *** there are three precious Auba truffles in the auction, the most eye-catching is a piece of white truffle from Elba in northern Italy, weighing one kilogram, while the weight of the usual truffle is only one-tenth of its weight, so it is extremely precious. After being pushed by the host of the popular American TV program "The Rich Life", the price of this piece of white truffle, which was originally priced at 8,000 U.S. dollars, was immediately raised to 30,000 U.S. dollars by chefs on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In the end, the famous film and television director and Los Angeles Bastide restaurant owner Pitka beat his rivals with a sky-high price of 35,000 U.S. dollars, and the head of the restaurant, Poto, told EURACTIV: "Weighing one kilogram of white truffle, 35,000 U.S. dollars is a price worth paying for it."
The ancients believed truffles were the daughters of lightning. The ancient Greeks and Romans were so enamored of truffles that they believed they had aphrodisiac properties. The famous composer and gourmet Rossini praised truffles as the Mozart of mushrooms. Truffles were once grown in the woodlands of Italy, with the finest quality coming from the edges of the hills of Roero and Lange in the Piedmont region of Italy, which also produces some of the country's finest wines.
Truffles contain alpha male hormone, a compound similar to the male steroid hormone, and it is thought that it is this odor that induces females to search for and mistakenly believe that they are tracking a partner of the opposite sex. Whether there is any truth to this claim remains to be studied.
A good truffle should be very firm and compact, with a heavy feel in the hand, unlike mushrooms, which are fluffy. A connoisseur will always look for the smell of a truffle before purchasing one, and this very distinctive and indescribable flavor is the primary criterion in determining the quality of a truffle. Fortunately, precious truffles can be stored for long periods of time as long as they are accompanied by their own soil, which is the only thing that allows them to retain their fascinating aroma. To store truffles they should be wrapped in paper towels, then in a layer of tinfoil, and then placed in the refrigerator at a low temperature. But be careful not to store them for too long either, or the flavor will be gone for good. And don't store truffles in rice, as many recipes say. The rice will suck out all of the truffle's distinctive flavor and leave you with an expensive potato in the end.
The traditional way to eat truffles is to use a special slicer to cut them into very thin slices and serve them raw or with butter and ricotta on lasagna noodles, scrambled eggs or penne pasta. Fontuta is the classic white truffle dish, made from Ventina cheese, eggs, and milk with white truffles added to it, and it tastes wonderful when eaten with bread.
Of course, white truffles can also be served warm, if you're confident in your cooking skills. Here's one way to do it: Boil sliced potatoes, slice white truffles and bake them with butter and ricotta cheese, then add them to the potatoes. The dish costs about $200.
Like fine wine, white truffles are categorized into different types depending on the roots of the tree they grow on, such as willow, oak, aspen, linden to grapevines. White truffles also range in color from white to pink and brownish-gray. Unlike black truffles, white truffles lose their characteristic flavor when heated and are best eaten washed and sliced at the end of the day. Black truffles are best served with a bottle of red Pomerol, while white truffles need a bottle of aged Resling to accompany them.