A strange mushroom that grows undergriund

What is a truffle ? ?
The petit Larousse" gives the following definition :black fungus totally underground, excellent comestible, living in symbiosis with the roots of a host tree".
Tuber in Latin, Hydnon in grec designate one and the same thing : all underground fungi ie Truffle.

« "Man created immunisation antibiotics and the computer, he travels in space and plants flags on the moon…but he has not yet discovered how to make truffles. »
M. Burnet, 1988

A tree, a climate and a ground

To grow, to live and to develop correctly, the truffle needs three conditions: a special tree that serves as a host, a particular ground and a special climate. The truffle likes cold winters without much frost, humid and mild springs, and hot and dry summers on condition that the rain in July and August favours its development. Precipitation,temperature and light are basic elements to the development of the truffle. The climate plays a very important role as far as regularity and quality of the truffle production are concerned.Generally spoken the truffle needs a mediterranean climate without much frost but with rain from time to time during the hot summer months.

The different kinds of truffles

There are 32 species of truffle in Europe but most of them only exist in a less important quantity and haven’t got any gastronomical quality In France, only the following two kinds of truffle have got the right to be called as truffles: The Tuber Mélanosporum and the Tuber Brumale.

Very important
this legislation that intents to avoid any abuse of the term, is only valid in France and Switzerland. Therefore caution is advisable in other countries! Buying French Product, you benefit from all guarantees. We deals in 4 kinds of truffle that are of aesthetic and gastronomic quality and each of have got a completely different perfumehave a view of them!

Cycle of black Winter truffles

Excerpt from “Guide Pratique de Trufficulture / P.Sourzat (4th edition) for sale in the shop site

Called "the Black Diamond"

Tuber melanosporum

Called "Black truffle" ou "Périgord Truffle" ou "rabasse" in Provençal.

But you have to know the following :
The truffle is not only from Périgord, just as little as the mushroom is from Paris, the nutmeg from Hamburg or the cabbage from Brussels.
The basin in the South-Est of France is responsible for more than 80 % of the national production.

Available between December 1st and Mach 31St.

For a gourmet exists only one sort of truffle and this is the famous “Perigord truffle“. Its botanical name is Tuber Melanosporum, which means “truffle with black spores”.
Its size varies from the size of a nut to the size of a potatoe. Certain exceptional specimen can weigh more than one kilogram. (the grandfather found one of 1,01 kg. The young gleba is white, then grey, finally when it is ripe, black with purple reflects and with distinctive veins. This veins are formed by a reddish-white line that protrudes slightly, framed by two translucent lines and darken then merge with the gleba in the end of the maturity (February - March).
Its perfume and its flavour are unforgettable.

The black truffle is excellent: It is the most appreciated and the best-selling truffle.

Buy truffe melanosporum

The truffe

Tuber brumale

Called "The musky"

Available between December 1st and Mach 31St.

Often it is confused with the black truffle. Its size, its colour, its skin, its spores, its production period and its trees that serve as a host, are identical. The gleba is white, greyish, then blackish-violet without the reddish and purple shade of the Tuber Mélanosporum. Finally in becomes brownish and blackish but less dark than the black truffle.
The veins are much larger and there is more space between them; its skin is removable. Its smell is aggressive but agreeable. Thanks to this perfume the Tuber Brumale is the one that is easier to identify than the other ones. Its taste is less significant than the Tuber Melanosporum’s.

It has a spiced smell, of musky, and of course a risk of confusion with the tuber melanosporum.

Buy truffe brumale

Called "TRUFFLE" non authorized

Tuber uncinatum

Called "Burgundy truffle " or "autumn truffe".

This species is an excellent edible.

It will provide much pleasure to the buyer, barely tempered by the fact that the market value of the truffle is lower than the truffle that he believed buying.
It has got the shape of an irregular tuber with a dark colour inside, marked by medium sized or little warts that are not vertically striped.
The gléba is dark-brownish with numerous veins that writhe.

It has an agreeable flavour and savour, but different of those of black truffle, and better test than the summer truffle.

summer “truffle”

Tuber aestivum

Called summer “truffle”

Available between May 1st and Novembre 30th.

Italy and France have got an important production of this species. It grows on the same ground and under the same varieties of trees as the Tuber Mélanosporum ( black truffle). The shape and the colour of its skin have got similarities with the Tuber Mélanosporum but in contrast to it, the colour of its flesh is white and does not change. ( The gleba is whitish, firm and hard and becomes finally yellowish, reddish-brown and olive-brown). Among the black coloured truffles, this species has got the biggest warts.
Its perfume is faint and agreeable but does not hide the typical smell of mushrooms.
This truffle is edible without having the gastronomic value of the Tuber Mélanosporum. Of course its retail price correlates with its gastronomic qualities.

It is obvious that this resemblance leads to numerous frauds with the white truffle. The label of these products has to mention: Tuber Aestivum and no truffle

Called "white TRUFFLE"

Tuber magnatum pico

Called "white Italian truffle", "Piedmont truffle" or "Alba truffle".

Available between September 1st and December 31th.

This type of truffle is an excellent edible that has a garlic aroma. The Etymology is “Lords” because of its high value. The Péridium is smooth, beige and slightly yellow. It is also called white Piedmont truffle or Alba truffle. This species is highly sought after in Italy. Throughout the years, many attempts to cultivate it have been made, but with very little success; Tuber magnatum has always been inexistent in France…until now! On November 15th a tremendous breakthrough happened. Fourteen truffle slices were sent to Gerard Chevalier. the internationally celebrated mycologist and truffle expert at the INRA of Clermont Ferrand (National Institute for Agronomic Research). Mr. Chevalier confirmed that the specimen was Tuber magnatum. Since that day, we know that Tuber magnatum is growing in France.

Ecology : sub-Mediterranean climate in the North and Central Italy, with good rainfall. Hosts are poplars and oak trees. Valleys and grounds that retain humidity. It grows in the grass and, unlike the so-called Perigord Truffle (T. melanosporum), it does not indicate its presence by a patch of bare soil known in French as a “brûlé” (burned patch).