Stemming from the Latin Tuber, which means lump, and therefore explains a lot, truffles grow, or more specifically partially live off, the host roots of trees, oak for black truffles, hazel and poplar for white truffles, but also beech and fir for lesser species. The truffle spores attach themselves to small nodules on the roots of the tree by a process named mycorrhiza, which allows the trees to absorb more nutrients, and the truffles to become, well, their highly-regarded selves. Curiously, it is only the black truffle that has thrived when cultivated.
Although more commonly associated with France and Italy, Spain has vast plantations of truffles (the village of Navaleno in Soria has some 600 hectares of truffle producing oaks, making it the biggest truffle plantation in the world), among them the superior black Périgord truffle (Tuber melanosporum, season December-March), Tuber brumale (also, confusingly called the black truffle or trufa negra, season also December-March) and the summer or Sant Joan truffle (Tuber aestivum, season May-December), which is whitish. It is not, however, to be confused with the best truffle of them all, the Tuber manatum of Piedmont, the famous white truffle of Italy (season October-end December).
It is useful to point out here that truffles are by no means a southern European delicacy. They are found just about everywhere if you know where to look, ranging from the deserts of the Kalahari (season February-April) to the Nordic forests of Finland. All like calcareous, well-drained soils, which are neutral or alkaline, and the shade of a strong and sturdy tree, but like most fungi, not all truffles are created equal.
For this reason they can also be prohibitively expensive. The rare Italian white truffle—Pico—recognised in only seven of the country’s northerly provinces, can fetch up to m6,000 a kilo, or more. In December 2007, a Macau casino owner by the name of Stanley Ho paid €185,000 for a Pico weighing 1.5 kilos. French black truffles, by comparison, only reach €2,000 for the same amount and Spanish are cheaper yet.
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