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Truffles |
The Perfect Natural Medicinal Food |
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A truffle is a kind of subterranean mushroom. Rather than calling it mushroom, it is better to call it the fruit portion of that mushroom plant. It achieves seed dispersal with the help of fruit eating birds and animals, or more specifically animals which eat fungi. There are very few animals which depend on this for food; hence conservation of those animals is very important to conserve this mushroom.
Truffle is a highly diversified type of fungus, which has several hundreds of species all over the world. Fruit portion of some of these species, those which belong to genus Tuber are used as food by people. They are very nutritious and medicinal food materials. So they are also the costliest items among mushrooms. There is a species of truffle, named Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin which is regarded as 'diamond of kitchen' for its exorbitant price and medicinal qualities. As there are hundreds of species of truffle, it is not possible to discuss all of them here, but let us discuss some important ones briefly here.
white truffle is also called as "Alba Madonna". Its scientific name is Tuber magnatum. This is the predominant truffle found in northern Italy region. Motovun forest, which grows beside Mirna River, is the home of this special type of mushroom. This plant has a symbiotic relationship with some other plants like Oak, hazel, poplar and beech etc. this bears fruits usually in autumn. Its ball like fruits are 12 cm wide and can weigh around 500 g. its pale cream or brownish white flesh is a very delicious food to eat.
This truffle is also called black perigord truffle (Tuber melanosporum). This special type of truffle is named after a region Perigord of France, where it was discovered for the first time. This is smaller than white truffle. Its balls are 7 cm across and weigh around 100 g. this is produced mainly by three European countries namely France, Spain and Italy, with these three countries producing about 45%, 35% and 20% of total production of black truffle in the world. Along with these three countries, Slovenia and Croatia are also producing this mushroom but in very small and insignificant quantities. Even though France is the largest producer of black truffle, the production has dropped significantly in recent years. In 1937, France produced more than 1000 metric tons of truffles, but now it has dropped to just 20 metric tons.
Even though white and black truffle are the most predominantly used truffle species in Europe, they aren't the only type of truffle present there. There are several different other kinds of truffle like "Scorzone truffle" (Tuber aestivum). This species is found mainly in America. America is also home to many other different types of truffle which are grown both for recreational and commercial purposes. Tuber oregonense and Tuber gibbosum are other important species found in Pacific Northwest. Another truffle named pecan truffle (Tuber lyonii) is mainly found in Southern United States.
Thus different types of truffles are playing a very important role in commercial, economical, food and medicinal fields all over the world.