We’re approaching truffle season here in Australia and expecting the ‘diamonds of the kitchen’ to be in high demand. So, we’ve asked Jess Pedemont and Tommy Prosser to put together a catalogue of recipes that we’re hoping you’ll be able to experiment with. We also asked growers and hunters to take some of the mystery surrounding these enigmatic fungi away. But, as it turns out, there’s even more surprises in the truffle game than we imagined.

It’s widely known that truffles take years to grow and can only do so under certain conditions. According to Peter Marshall from Terra Tetra Truffles in the Southern Highlands, NSW, Tuber melanosporum is the French black truffle of renown, and has a symbiotic relationship with the trees upon which it grows, including oaks, hazels, poplars, willows and some other European tree species.

“The tree uses sunlight and gives the truffle sugars. The truffle eats rock and gives the tree nutrients,” Peter says.

“Preparation to grow truffles starts many years before the trees are planted. We have worked on some paddocks for 20 years before the soil structure was right to plant the trees.

“It is crucial to plan. Any mistake made in the initial plantings will be reflected in compounding failures years later.”

One thing to remember about the truffle growing process is that fungi are a biochemical accumulator, so it’s a good idea to buy organic

At Terra Tetra they grow two main varieties of truffle: Tuber melanosporum and Tuber magnatum, from France and Italy respectively.

“Many other truffles exist around the world, but they’re mostly of no culinary value,” Peter says.

“There are many hundreds of species of Australian truffles. Sorry – they don’t taste good to humans, but they’re utterly crucial to the health of forests and are a major food source for potoroos, bettongs, wombats, bats and birds.”

The Tuber magnatum truffle is the famed white Italian truffle.

“It’s quite different in aroma and taste but equally wonderful as Tuber melanosporum,” Peter says.

“Do not be deceived by claims made about the inferior whitish Tuber borchii. It is easy to grow and of little culinary value. There have been attempts by some people to relate it to the Tuber magnatum – a grave insult to one of the finest foods on earth.”

According to Peter, shaving raw over hot pasta is for the white truffle, whereas the black truffle needs a bit of heat, some cultured butter and good cream to activate its charms.

“Infuse the peelings in vodka and you have pure essence of truffle,” he says.

Australian truffles can hold their own against the finest of European truffles, and rigid grading by good farmers keeps the product at an exemplary standard.

The immense work that goes in to producing truffles of exemplary standard is best illustrated by Peter when describing how to clean truffles.

“Clean truffles under cold running water with your second best tooth brush,” he says.

“Try that for three hours a day for four months and you will understand why we end the season happy but exhausted.”

Some growers like Terra Tetra do have their own dogs on site to hunt for the truffles, but on the other side of the country, Katie Boyer and Adrian Mielke are contracted truffle hunters for a major truffle producer in Western Australia.

With backgrounds in zookeeping and guide dog training, they delved into the world of truffle hunting through a friend. They hunt for the Tuber melanosporum black truffle with their search party.

“Typically a hunter will search with one dog at a time as more than one dog is distracting to the other dog, and the handler-dog team will work for one to two hours depending on the dog’s experience, attention span, weather and other mitigating factors,” Katie says.

That said, the people involved hunt for more than eight hours a day, in all weathers, for six days a week, for about four months.

“In our case we are lucky enough that once a dog has indicated a truffle and we have checked it, we tag the truffle for later harvest by a back packer labourer,” Katie says.

The dogs indicate they’ve found a truffle in various ways, depending on the dog. Katie says a light pawing is ideal, but they’ve also used nose pointing or a sit or lay action. It’s natural for the dog to want to dig up the truffle, but of course this runs the risk of damaging the truffle. This is why some of the dogs wear little ‘booties’.

The dogs can discern between immature and mature truffles as every stage has a distinct aroma and this is important as young truffles are left for next season. Once a truffle is found, it’s up to the human keepers to lightly dig and expose the top of the truffle, which can be 30-40cm underground.

It’s often heard that pigs are used in truffle hunting, but Katie says dogs work for them because pigs like to eat truffles.

“They tend not to want to give them up, so the hunter has to negotiate large teeth on a powerful animal to retrieve the truffle, whereas for a dog, being a carnivore, truffle is not a natural food source,” Katie says.

Once the truffles are harvested, there’s a time-consuming process of cleaning, washing, drying, grading and packaging involved for each individual truffle before they’re ready to be used by chefs like Jess Pedemont and Tommy Prosser.

Tommy says working in one- and three-Michelin starred restaurants in England, he was lucky enough to use truffles on a daily occurrence, but these days they wait until the season comes around and really savour the product, with the freedom to experiment.

“When used right they definitely add and enhance a dish, they are very unique in flavour and aroma,” he says.

“There is also the unquestionable feeling of decadence due to the status symbol and price tag that the mighty truffle holds.”

Jess says in using truffles, you should let it be the hero of the dish.

“If it’s a new thing for you to cook with, start with simple, classical dishes to understand the ingredient and respect the product,” she says.

On the recipes featured, Jess says the truffle custard is great stuffed in the milk bun or sandwiched in a croissant.

“The butter and salt are the top all-rounders to me, good for seasoning food that need cooking or as a finishing product,” she says.

“One of the things we tried out was a truffle Dulche De Leche not featured here, but we will try it on a fluffy Japanese pancake some time in the near future,” Tommy says.

“We also made my favourite batch of dry cured and cold smoked bacon using truffle in the cure and sprinkled it after slicing.

“The other experiment was cold smoked golden trout with fresh truffle and glazed in truffle honey.”

Jess Pedemont and Tommy Prosser both agree that truffle is a versatile ingredient, and life is about experimenting to see what works and having fun.

Hokkaido Milk Bun