White truffles

Citizens of the Périgord are justly proud of their truffles, known informally as black diamonds. Woe betide anyone who might suggest that the white truffles of the north Italian town of Alba are superior. However, if you go by the prices those fetch, it’s hard to dispute which type of truffle is the more revered. 

In a good year, the average cost per kilo of the Périgord’s black Melanosporum weighs in at $721.25, while the Tuber magnatum, the so-called truffle of the white Madonna, is so rare that in good condition they can fetch up to $10,500 a kilo. At last year’s late autumn festival, they were selling for $6000 a kilo following a poor harvest. Even in a prolific year, their lowest average price is more than $2000 a kilo.

In 2016, in Philadelphia, a truffle auction took place over global live simulcast at which a white truffle selling in Italy and weighing in at over 1.15 kilos, was the star. The winning bid came from Dong Xhenxiang, chef-owner of Da Dong Roast Duck in Beijing. He paid $112,000 for it. Given an Alba white truffle has a shelf-life of about 7 days, he would have had to use it fast.

The largest truffle in the world was also from Alba and weighed in at 1.88kg. It, too, was sold at auction, by Sotheby’s in New York, for $61,000.

But French truffle growers can now take heart. Big bucks may soon be coming their way. In July, scientists from INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, revealed that somewhere secret in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 26 white truffles have been successfully cultivated.

Over 90 percent of the Périgord’s black truffles are cultivated. But producers have struggled to farm the rarer white. At the institute, two hard years passed with feeble harvests before this bumper crop. The lead mycologist of the project, Dr Claude Murat, confirmed that the truffles could now be considered as established. In cultivating black truffles, producers expect only a few truffles to begin with before a quick increase by the second or third harvest. Apparently, the French white truffle has just behaved the same way.

Back in the 1970s, French scientists worked out how to successfully inoculate oak trees with truffles, establishing the Périgord as prime providers of the black variety. But the trick failed with the more lucrative white truffles despite working on half a million seedlings in plantations in France, Italy and Spain. After nearly 20 years, only a few truffles were found.

It’s been a long journey to achieve this harvest in France of 26. It was begun in 1999 with oak trees that had been genetically linked with Italian white truffles whose seedlings were then planted out from 2008 on.

Of the 52 oaks planted in 2015, 12 have produced truffles - three truffles in 2019, four in 2020 and suddenly in 2021 the twenty six which together weighed around 900g.

So we may be seeing white truffles at the Sainte Alvere truffle market sometime in the future, which will be of increased financial benefit to local producers and an added filip for local chefs, cooks, and diners.

If you are lucky enough to own a truffle of any colour, treat it as simply as possible. Either grate it generously over a dish of fresh pasta cooked al dente, or shave it over an omelette. Black Perigord truffles can be cooked but white Italian truffles should be eaten raw. 

Truffle omelette

2 room-temperature eggs per person
6 fine slices of truffle
Walnut-sized lump of unsalted butter
1 tablespoon oil, light olive or truffle
Finishing salt

An omelette should not contain fewer than two eggs or more than four. If you’re making them for more than one person, you’ll need to repeat the process. Whip them together with a teaspoon of cold water. Add whatever scraps and tailings of truffle you have. Put a nugget of unsalted butter into a heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium-low heat to melt then add a tablespoon of light olive oil or truffle oil and swirl. Pour in the eggs and swirl to cover the pan.

​As they begin to set, keep drawing them to the side with a spatula, tilting the pan to let the runny egg fill the bottom. Once they have just set, remove from the heat, shake the pan to ensure the base is not sticking, season with salt and pepper, then add the first three slices of truffle. Fold the omelette in two then add three more slices on top before serving, sprinkled lightly with a finishing salt. Don’t add salt to eggs before cooking them as it toughens them. 

This column written by Julia Watson originally appeared in the September 2022 edition of  The Bugle.