The truffle season begins in autumn, but it is now (January – February) when truffles have all their aroma and flavour, allowing you to enjoy their potential in gastronomy.

It is the perfect time to enjoy the black truffle. Not only for its nutritional value, has it had a lot. If not also for being a highly appreciated national product outside our borders and the moment when any dish, with truffles, becomes haute cuisine in an instant;

To know all the details of the black truffle, we spoke to AS with the forestry engineers, forestry engineers specializing in technological truffle farming at ID Forest – Applied Forest Biotechnology.

“The beginning of the truffle season usually arrives around the beginning of November, the end of October, when you can already find a specimen. There are some good harvesting periods in some autonomous communities around November or December when they are more mature “, they tell us.

“The first truffle that is found is not the best. The best is now, in January, February, when they are riper. The first ones tend to be of low quality in terms of aromas and organoleptic quality”.

Where to find truffles

“On the one hand, we have the wild truffle that, like other mushrooms, grows in certain forests. There are places like hunting reserves, mycological reserves, which go up for auction for those who want to make a profit. In the plantations “;

In addition to plantations, truffles can be found in mycorrhizal oaks. These trees are planted in rural areas of deforested forest, which also favours the recovery of native plants and fixes C02, again creating ecosystems that had been devastated by extensive agriculture.

White truffle vs. black truffle

The black truffle or white truffle, what difference are there? “The white, Tuber mangnatum, and the black, Tuber melanosporum, are two different species with a totally different aroma and flavour. The price varies by the quantity available in the market, white is scarcer than black”, they explain.

How to know if a truffle is of quality and in season

“Anyone who knows the black truffle well, someone expert has told them, or explained the characteristics of a natural truffle, really, is where you begin to recognize the quality, and really know if it is black truffle, Tuber melanosporum. Sometimes it happens that there are restaurants that put other species, Tuber indicium, which is the Chinese truffle, “they warn.

“It is recognized with gastronomic culture, going to conferences, meeting the professionals who really explain the characteristics. Sometimes they even put on black truffles with truffle aromas, and it is not like that.” The actual black truffle does not need anything extra.

To be clear that it’s a quality truffle, it is essential to consider some factors. “The maturity of the truffle is one of the keys, that it is healthy, that it does not have insects, although they are innocuous, they give a certain appearance that the truffle is not good. If it is past, the truffle smells bad, very bad. And when it is very immature, it smells very little. It is the most important thing to recognize quality. “

Nutritional properties of truffles

. Truffles have nutritional content very similar to that of mushrooms.

. The truffle is a food rich in minerals; it has potassium, phosphorus, iodine, selenium, iron, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.

. The content of vitamin C and vitamins stands out, especially B2, B3, and B9.

. Do not contain fat.

. Provide a large amount of water.

. Contain very few carbohydrates.

. The white truffle is lighter than the black truffle.

. One hundred grams of truffle provide between 50 and 90 kcal.

. Truffles also provide fibre and vegetable proteins (especially black truffles).