What is white truffle?

White truffle is a kind of wild plant fungus of western truffle family, similar to Pleurotus ostreatus, boletus and so on. It was first discovered in 1950 and later became a delicacy in banquets, known as white diamonds. In the 1950s and 1960s, the White Truffle King was given as a gift by clever Italian truffle merchants to the most famous people in the world, such as Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Hitchcock, Pavarotti and Gorbachev. The star halo and the magical effect of the white truffle doubled the value of the white truffle, making it a top international ingredient.

White truffle is the seasoning of food, should be eaten raw, do not need to cook, because the most useful is the sweet smell of white truffle, like the rich flavor of garlic, it will go off in case of fire. Because the white truffle emits a strong aroma with garlic flavor, Italian people like to eat it with sliced cheese or bread, and it helps to enhance the aroma and taste of the food. As dogs with approved licences can only be excavated with a keen sense of smell, and in order to maintain freshness, they can only be stored for about 10 days after excavation, making white truffles expensive.

The white truffle itself has no special taste, but because of its special smell, many people have been fascinated by it since ancient times. In 1825, Briya Savaran, a famous French gourmet, praised truffle as "the diamond of the kitchen" in his book "Taste Physiology". Europeans rank truffle, caviar and foie gras as one of the world's top three delicacies, especially the black truffle made in France and the white truffle made in Italy. Eating truffles can not be heated or chewed. It is more like a spice. It is planed into extremely thin slices with professional knives and eaten now. Each time you only need to sprinkle some crumbs on ordinary dishes, it will have an earth-shaking effect.

White truffle generally weighs 30 to 40 grams, brown and rough in appearance and hard in texture. After digging up, wipe the surface of the soil on it, there is no need to clean, in order to maintain the fresh taste, it is best to eat within two weeks. Prices fluctuate from year to year, but usually between $800 and $1500 per pound. The largest white truffle in history, which weighed about 4 pounds and sold for $5000, was found in 1951, but $5000 was a sky-high price for people shortly after World War II.

White truffles are also produced in China, mainly concentrated in the surrounding areas of Yunnan and Sichuan. White truffles with high edible value are mainly divided into two kinds, which are slightly smaller than European white truffles, but there is not much difference in the unique smell of white truffles. the quality of mature white truffle is still excellent. The early domestic white truffle was rejected by the French planting Association because it occupied the European market in large quantities, so the export price was lower at the time of purchase, but with the gradual decrease of the world white truffle production, its price increased rapidly year by year.

White truffle to food is like Rolls-Royce to cars, Versace to fashion and Chanel No. 5 to perfume. It represents the most expensive luxury in the world. It combines astonishing prices, mysterious and magical legends and the taste of showers. It has always been the object pursued by tycoons from all over the world, who do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to kiss "Fangze". In Tuscany, Italy, the famous white truffle's main producing area, Italy's first truffle museum will officially open on the 13th to tell visitors the legend of truffles.