Truffle Dogs, Pt 1 by Walsh

Here's the first of two parts about truffles and truffle dogs. An amazing food and the loyal hound...

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We are far behind the Germans, French, and Italians in our knowledge of esculent fungi. Our Continental neighbours are far more skilled, both in their preservation and production. They can dry them, or preserve them in oil, vinegar, or brine; and in neither case do these conserves lose much of their aroma, flavour, or nutritious quality. One Italian species is produced by scattering a shallow layer of soil upon a porous slab of stone, and occasionally moistening it with water; another, by slightly burning, and subsequently watering, blocks of hazel-wood; and a third (a species of Agaricus) is cultivated by placing the grounds of coffee in places favourable for its growth. The market returns of Rome show that as much as £4000 a year are expended on those productions; and the peasantry of France, Germany, and Italy iD many places subsist to a great extent upon them, is an established fact.

The truffle—an edible underground fungus—is classed by Berkeley with the morel, as one of the Ascomycetes, because in these the "spores," or organs of reproduction, are arranged in asci (tubular sacs, or vesicles). The best writers on fungi have arrived at this learned conclusion; but in spite of all their discoveries, and their elaborate remarks on "spheroidal cells," and "spores," and "fructification taking place in some particular membrane," we believe attempts to cultivate the truffle have failed.

Science has ascertained that they form an intermediate link between the animal and vegetable kingdom, for they do not absorb carbonic acid from the air and give out oxygen, but, like animals, they absorb oxygen and give out carbonic acid.

The truffle is found in many districts of France, Spain, and Italy; and in other parts of these countries, doubtless (as in England), it exists, though it has not been discovered.

In this country it may be found on almost every chalky down, especially where plantations of beech flourish, and in many gentlemen's parks, and on lawns. Hampshire, Wilts, Dorset, and Kent, all these counties produce truffles of rich quality and in great abundance. Beneath the beech, the cedar, the lime, the oak, the hazel, the Scotch fir, it is frequently to be found in clusters, one, two, or three feet apart. It is known to be at Tedworth (the seat of the late Mr. T. Assheton Smith); at Charbro Park, Dorset (the seat of Mr. Drax); at Olantigh Towers, in Kent; and at Holnest House, in Dorset (both seats belonging to the same gentleman); whilst Kingston Lacey, in Dorset (the property of the Bankeses), produces both morelR and truffles. Truffles are also found at East well Park, Kent; at Sir J. Sebright's, in Beechwood Park; at Lord Barrington's; at Lord Jersey's; at Longleat, Wilts; at the Countess Bridgewater's; at Lord Winchilsea's; and, we believe, at the Earl of Abingdon's seat, near Oxford.

In some of these localities they are found in beds of twenty, thirty, or more. Sometimes they are discovered singly, in most unpromising situations and of extraordinary size; occasionally they are on the surface of the earth, half eaten by hares, squirrels, rats, mice, or rooks—their natural enemies. Sometimes they are raked up with the dead leaves by the gardener' and one of the finest we ever dug was found by a truffle-dog close to an old gate-post; whilst within a fortnight of the writing of this article, a keeper picked up a large truffle dropped from a fir-tree by a squirrel.

They are in season from November until March, and when fit for the table are nearly black. Cut open, they are of close texture, marbled or spotted with a grey tint. In the summer they are white inside, and give but little smell, and are unsavoury. They vary in size. Occasionally they are so minute as to be scarcely visible, frequently as large as a walnut, and they are commonly as large as a moderate-sized potato.

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Part II tomorrow!