WEBVTT - Truffles: Underground Treasures 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.040 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.280 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and we're the Gastro Boys. 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.480 This is stuff you should know. That's probably a podcast 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:26.880 the Gastro Boys. Oh Man, Chuck, it's like we share 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:35.559 our mind sometime. Yeah, that's exactly. Have you ever eaten truffles? Uh? Sure, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.840 I had some popcorn once with truffles and parmesan cheese. 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.839 I'm sure it was real truffle. I was trying to 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.600 think if I had, and I think, I mean I didn't. 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:49.879 I'm a dummy because I didn't even know if you're like, yeah, 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:51.600 i've had truffle oil. I know what it tastes like. 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.200 Spoiler alert, that's not made from real truffles, right, it 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.360 would be so expensive you could never do that. So 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.120 I thought I had had truffle through that. But then 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.800 I think I remember at a staple house here in Atlanta. 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:08.800 I think one of the things on their tasting menu 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.520 had truffle shaved truffle on it, but like it wasn't 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.080 like an extra hundred dollars to cover your pizza. It 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.040 was like a the tiniest little shaving on top of 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.800 amuse boush type of thing, right, which is apparently the 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.400 way that you're supposed to eat it, like you're supposed 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.080 to eat it with a very yeah, very simple dish 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.440 where the truffle is this star and just sit there 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.160 and cry, maybe take your clothes off so you can 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.840 get the full experience, okay and um, and not leave 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.920 your house for three days afterward, at least according to 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:46.320 all of the people who have ever been interviewed about truffles, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.640 meaning foodies who talk about this kind of stuff and 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.080 use words like celestial and life changing and things like 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.600 that when it comes to talking about truffles, So that is, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.240 you know, the truffles are one of the finer things 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.440 in life. And another thing that I'd never had either 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:05.120 here at my rip oled age was caviare until a 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:10.360 listener recently who runs the California Caviare company sent some 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.400 caviare and I had gone my whole life without trying it, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.680 and I didn't know what to expect. I had no 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.920 idea what it would taste like. It was awesome. I 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.040 get it now, It's really good. It's like I was. 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.760 I was calling it ocean butter. That's kind of what 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.680 it reminded me of. It's, you know, briny, but just buttery, 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.640 and like it tastes like a rich person's food. And 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:34.520 I totally got it. After I had someone was like, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.560 this is really good and I get it now. Um. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:39.520 I also want to shout out a couple of people, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.280 since you're talking about the finer things and people who've 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:45.080 sent stuff in. Um uh, all one more time, we 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.880 should shout out toad over it down East day Boats 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:53.120 dot Com for the scallops, amazing scallops. Um our buddy 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.400 Addison Rex, who's um Jurassic Wines. He likes to send 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.720 those once in a while and they're amazing too. Yeah, 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:01.400 he's here. I think I've talked about him before. He 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:05.799 has the company Wine Spies, which is a really kind 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.920 of a unique take on a wine club membership. And 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.480 I am constantly buying wines and adding them to my 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.200 little locker and then once you get twelve bottles in 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.480 your locker, you get it shipped all at once. Yeah. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.160 He's just a cool dude all around too. He's awesome. 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.760 And then, lastly, do you remember we talked about in 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:29.200 the Groundhog Day episode. Um uh, pig whistle, No, whistle pig. Yes, yes, 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:34.440 pig whistle. I'm so dumb. Um. Whistle pig makes rye. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.240 And they heard us talking about them, or somebody told 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.440 them we talked about them, and they sent us like 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.119 a whole bunch of rye, like really really good rye. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.920 And I'm here to tell you whistle pig is really 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.800 good stuff. I have to say after now having experienced 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.880 the firsthand, I haven't been in the office and forever 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.000 is there whistle pig on my desk? Yes? Two bottles? Remember, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.480 I don't remember. It was a while ago. Yeah, it's 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.640 still it should be still there. If not, we got problems. Yeah, boy, 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.680 we need to look at the security team. But we're 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:09.920 talking truffles and we're not talking chocolate truffles. Uh. I 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.960 didn't even look this up, but I assume their name 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.040 so because they kind of look like truffles, right, That's 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.719 what I gathered as well. They're kind of um that 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.200 coded in like a cocoa dust like spores a little bit. 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.760 And yeah, they're they're bumpy and just kind of ugly. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.800 They do kind of resemble black truffles in a lot 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.719 of ways. Let me ask you this, Did you read 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.880 the Atlantic article? Uh? No, I did not. Actually, well 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.240 it's I skimmed it and I'm gonna read it in 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.760 full later. There's this writer, his name is Ryan Jacobs, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.320 who wrote an article in the Atlantic. He was he 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:48.200 was basically on a mushroom story about Porcini mushroom foragers 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:52.080 in Germany and people that weren't you know, sort of 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.719 an not an illegal trade, but they were foraging where 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.159 they shouldn't be. One of them ran over a forestry 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.880 guard with a car and they got away with it. 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.200 He called his friend in the UK. It was like, hey, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.880 is there a story here? And he was like, not really, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.880 he said, but if you really want a crime story, 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.479 look at truffles. So this guy looked at the truffle 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.600 underground truffle market and wrote this article that turned into 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.800 a book called The Truffle Underground Colon, a tale of mystery, mayhem, 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.000 and manipulation and the shadowy market of the world's most 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.920 expensive fungus. And I kind of quickly scanned it and 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.880 it is um like anything else in the world, like 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.480 fine art or rare wines, anything that's sort of scarce 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.360 and rare. There will be crime surrounding it, whether it's 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.799 poisoning truffle dogs or blowing up someone's car, or heisting 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.120 and robbing people of their truffle take, or selling fraudulent 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.200 fake stuff. Selling fraudulent fake stuff I saw. One thing 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.960 they would do is try and cram dirt into crevices 0:05:55.120 --> 0:06:00.480 to make them heavier. Um, trying to sell diseased like 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.440 wormed out truffles and stuff like that. So, just like 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.760 anything else rare and expensive, there is a dark side 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.720 to it, and truffles are no exception, no note, um, 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:15.599 and truffles are really amazing little creatures. I had no idea. Um. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.960 I mean, I figured that they were, like I think 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.039 just about everybody else who never really looked into truffles 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.839 that much, that they were very much like mushrooms. Um, 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.320 and they are related to mushrooms only in that they 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.480 are both part of the same kingdom. Fun guy. So 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.360 to say like, um, truffles are related to mushrooms is 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.000 basically the same thing as saying that human beings are 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.839 related to starfish, because we're both part of the kingdom. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:48.440 That's how distantly related mushrooms and truffles are. They they 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.279 they diverged at the division level, which is right under kingdom. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.320 So they're they're only related in the most basic way 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.520 that something can be related, not in any kind of 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:03.040 complex or even loose way whatsoever. Yeah, I mean, one 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.320 of the biggest differences between mushrooms and truffles are mushrooms 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.480 grow above ground and truffles, as most people know, grow underground, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.760 which is why you need to hunt. And it's called hunting. 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.520 It's not technically it's not called foraging or collecting. It's 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.080 called truffle hunting that you used to do with pigs 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.760 because pigs, you know, don't need to be trained. They 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.560 know where to go to get those truffles. Now they 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.080 use dogs for a few reasons. One is because dogs 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:34.920 don't want to eat the truffles and pigs do. So 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.520 a pig finds that truffle and you gotta then you 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.400 gotta get it away from that big like really quick. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:41.880 Dogs I want to eat those things. Dog just want 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.600 to make master happy. And so you can kind of 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:46.120 train a dog to do this and turn it into 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.400 a game. And then you know, the other reason listed 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.960 here was like you truffle hunt three months out of 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:53.040 the year and then you got a pig for the 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.680 other nine months, which I say is great, but other 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.280 people are like, these are hundreds of pounds and dogs 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.200 are better pets and easier to care right exactly. Um, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.280 the reason people use pigs in the first place, which 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.239 seems kind of weird on its face, but truffles produce 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.960 a um, a kind of volatile organic compound called andrew 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.400 steen all or in drosten all um, and that is 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:21.880 actually the same thing as a sex hormone scent that 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.400 male pigs put out. So if you go truffle hunting, 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:26.760 you want to take a female pig because they're actually 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.360 rooting out a sex scent. Um. I guess they think that, uh, 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.280 a male pig and his junk are buried just you know, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.520 between two and fifteen inches underground, and so they start 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.040 rooting through the ground and end up finding truffles and then, 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:41.440 like you said, try to eat it, so you have 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:46.800 to wrestle it away from them. Sweet pigs, they are sweet, um. 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.080 But yeah, so dogs make a lot more sense. So 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.040 it's pretty rare from what I understand, to see somebody 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.600 hunting with a pig these days, unless they're just like 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.760 some pipster purist who also like butcher's the pig after 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.080 the truffle hunt to you know, um, just out of 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.160 respect man. And then um, there's another thing you can do. 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:06.880 If you're like, well, I can't afford a pig, or 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:08.600 I can't afford a dog because I've never found a 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.319 truffle and sold one. I'm saving up um. You can 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.040 get yourself just a little a little um. There's a 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.640 kind of truffle spade called a sapin you can dig 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.560 them up with. And there's actually other natural signs that 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.040 you can look for um when you look for truffle um. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.199 One is the su Wilia fly, which likes to plant 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.960 um itself. It's burrows just above truffles, so you see 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.079 this specific kind of fly. If you learn to identify 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.320 that fly, you can remind yep. And then also there's 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.640 something called the brew ley like cranbrew lay, but it 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.040 means burned in French. And it's a dark patch of 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.360 earth um around the base of the tree where the 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.360 truffles growing. And we'll talk about why they grow there 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.839 in a second, but this dark patch of earth is 0:09:54.880 --> 0:10:01.200 actually basically antibiotics that um the truffle itself or the 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.000 fun guy that the truffle grows from puts out two 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:10.000 poison the ground above it, because it doesn't do very 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.400 well if there's a lot of vegetation growing around it. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.839 It does really well growing around among the roots of trees. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.320 It doesn't like a very clear or it doesn't like 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.760 a very thick under underbrush. It likes it to be 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.720 nice and clear and airy. So it kills off any 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.960 potential seeds or or um weeds or grass or anything 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.679 that might be growing right above it. And then amazing, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:37.439 So the truffle says, I shall scorch the earth above me. Exactly, yes, exactly, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.439 that's amazing. So you see those signs, you probably have 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.160 a truffle down there. So you don't need a dog 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.560 or a pig. You just need to be good at that. Yeah, 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.120 true hipster, the kind of the pointy chin beard. They 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:55.160 just look for truffles by hunting for brulet. All right, well, 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.960 let's take a break. That's a good setup. Our hipster 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.000 is still a thing. I don't know. I haven't been 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:02.600 out of my house in a year or so, so 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.400 I can't tell if they're still around or not. Maybe 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.280 they all went away during the pandemic. They were they 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.440 rethought their lives, and they're gonna come out as sincere, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.800 non ironic humans. All right, which is what we're gonna do. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:17.360 We're gonna take a break and come back as that 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:43.000 right after this. All right. So, truffles are these underground 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.000 things that you eat. I don't even think we said that. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.080 We did. We talked about eating truffles at the beginning. 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.000 I guess now I'm all paranoid that we're not explaining 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.280 things soon enough. Why because the foodies are listening. Well, 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.920 because people are like, you've waited fifteen minutes before you 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.480 even said what X was. I think those people are joking. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.319 They're making fun of our paranoia. Yeah, that's how I've 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.280 been taking it and thirteen years and it really doesn't matter, right, No, 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:10.959 not at all, as long as people are still listening, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.800 we're doing okay. Truffles are these things that are very rare, 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.679 They're hard to find, they're hard to get, they're very expensive, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.960 which we'll get to. Uh. And there are many different kinds. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.120 There are thousands of varieties of truffle. But if you're 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.640 talking on a macro level, sort of the basics of 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.240 truffles that you would hunt and eat you've got black 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.400 truffles and white truffles and burgundy truffles and then some 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.600 other you know, lesser known truffles. But you really want 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.240 to talk about black and white truffles as the two 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.040 leading truffles that you're gonna find on a plate if 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.079 you have a lot of money, right, and if if 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:47.720 they're um, you're actually specifically talking about the black French 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:53.280 truffle um, the tuber milani sporum um from Paragore, France, 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.440 southwest France. Um. And then that's so that's like the 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.320 prized black truffle. The prized white truffle, which is actually 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.760 even rarer and even more expensive than the Paregord truffle 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:10.120 um is the tuber magnantum pico, the albo truffle from 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.679 the Piedmont area of Italy. And then, like you said, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.040 the burgundy one, right, the black ones. If you if 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.720 you look at it, it's sort of like a lumpy um. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.520 It sort of looks like has the texture of like 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.440 a leechy, but it's not colorful. It's black and it's 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.080 sort of lumpy, and it looks like a clump of dirt. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.640 Maybe some people say it looks like poop um. If 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.640 you if you slice it open, it looks like it's 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.800 very has that dense marbl ing like a really nice 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.240 cut of beef might have, Yeah, like wye goo beef. Yeah, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.920 which is just amazing to see. If have you ever 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.520 seen that stuff? For all the beef, for the truffle 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.280 the beef. I've seen both, yes, okay, yeah, so why 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.400 do you even ask? I don't know, but they do 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.600 look alike that that really really dense veiny marbling. The 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.360 white truffle, on the other hand, it looks sort of 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.720 like a little you know, you know, the little round 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.720 white potatoes. It looks like those, not like a baker potato, 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:09.840 but it looks sort of like a white potato. Yeah, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:15.360 like Yukon gold, but white. Sure. I like the Yukon gold. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.719 Those are good. They're both pungent in the in The 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.760 odor apparently, is really hard to describe. I've seen so 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.800 many different creative, kind of fun and goofy ways to 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.960 describe the aroma of a truffle um. I've heard a 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.960 lot of people say they're stinky. Some people say like 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.880 locker room like funky earthy, Yeah, funky and earthy. It's 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.920 almost as much fun as describing what a theorem in 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:45.160 sounds like exactly. I think burgundy truffles are a little 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.280 more aromatic. But you know there, it's a very unique smell, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.000 and I think they're they're kind of stinky, supposedly. Yeah. 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.120 One of the reasons they're stinky is because um truffles. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.320 So the truffle you're eating is the fruiting body, just 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.160 like when you eat a mushroom, like a button mushroom. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.360 That's not the fun guy. That's the fruit that grows 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.400 off of the fun guy, and it has the spores 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.200 and the spores spread everywhere. Um, and and truffles have 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.160 have spores as well, but they're sequestered inside of it. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.440 They're not on the outside all hanging out, letting its 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.840 junk hang around like some common mushroom. Um. They keep 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.800 theirs inside and until marriage, and by marriage, I mean 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.040 until an animal roots them up and eats them and 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.720 then poops it out somewhere else. UM. So in that sense, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.520 they're they're different from mushrooms as well, but they have 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.120 that funky smell because on the outside, when they're in 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.200 the dirt, they're actually colonized by all sorts of bacteria. 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.600 And yeast and all sorts of weird little things that 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.120 helped create the symbiotic relationship that the fun guy uh 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.080 has with the tree roots that it grows within. So yeah, 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.360 you mentioned trees. Uh, this is really interesting. Like I 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.160 never I didn't know much about truffles at all, and 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.600 my whole thought was like, why are these things so rare? 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.600 Like why can't people just plant truffles like any other 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.720 vegetable you might grow? And the reason why is is 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:09.440 you can't. Really there is a process, but it's not 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.400 like planting any other plant, I think, And they've been 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.720 doing it for thirty five years in the United States 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:21.600 at failure rate. So it's really hard to uh to grow. 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.960 And I don't even know if that's the right word. Yeah, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.040 just kind of um yeah, because they're they're like there're 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.400 a miracle of nature in a certain way. They're they're 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.880 a micro riz a, which means that they're a fun 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.360 guy that has a symbiotic relationship with the tree that 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.920 they grow at. Right, and usually in Europe usually find 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.360 them growing around the roots of um oak trees or 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.600 hazel trees. Um in the US they grow at the 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.080 base of pecan trees and then oak trees here to 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.280 um in Oregon, they grow at the base of Douglas 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:59.280 fir trees. So like certain species of um of truffles 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.040 row like at certain the basis of certain trees, because 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.280 they have these relationships where the truffle or the micro riza, 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.159 the fung the fungus that gives rise to the truffle 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.640 that we eat um, it has its own symbiotic relationship 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.520 with a bunch of bacteria and yeast. Like I said 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.400 that it colonized it and those things take nutrients from 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:26.920 the soil, like nitrates and phosphates and convert them into 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.080 nitrogen and phosphorus, which is usable for the tree. So 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.840 the trees growing around all these different forms of nitrogen 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.280 and fosters, but it can't do anything with it. This 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.600 micro riz a, this fung gui converts it into usable 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.000 form for the tree and pumps it into the tree's roots, 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:47.160 feeds the tree nutrients and in exchange, the tree says, 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.200 here has some carbohydrates, I'll trade you, and the microiza 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.399 the fungi says, thank you very much. Yeah. So if 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.480 you're gonna try and uh cultivate, I guess that's the 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.760 word I'm looking for a truffle, is you inject a 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.480 special uh these special fungi spores into this oak or 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.560 this hazel nut tree when they're just little seedlings, and 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.520 then you plant that tree and then cross your fingers 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.960 basically that that tree is going to grow up and 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:17.919 be healthy, because that's the first step. You gotta have 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.280 a tree that works, and then that those truffles are 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.879 gonna attach to those tree roots underground. And you can't 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.160 you know, I imagine it's frustrating in that you can't 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.639 look at your harvest and just see it growing on 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.080 top of the ground. You just have to have a 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.200 lot of patients because I think it takes uh like 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.879 four years on average for this to work out to 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.920 where you're yielding a truffle two percent of the time. 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.480 In the United States, Um, we're trying here. It's just 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.040 you know, apparently we have the right climate like on 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.919 the West coast where you were talking about some mid 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:57.359 Atlantic states Carolina's, Virginia's, southern Kentucky, northern Alabama, and I 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:01.240 think New Mexico and Arizona are only where it's possible 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.919 to get failure rate right. And we should say this 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.199 is where they're trying to grow like paragore truffles or 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.359 alba truffles, like the really highly prized one. The United 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.920 States has its own indigenous truffles. There's something like four 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.760 thousand or five thousand species of truffles. It was just right, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.480 their garbage truffles. It's just that there's like three species 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.239 that are genuinely prized and that can go for like 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.800 a thousand dollars a pound, depending on how bad or 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.400 good the harvest was that year. UM. But the United 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.600 States has indigenous ones, like there's the Oregon truffle, which 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.560 grows to the base of Douglas first. There's Pecan truffles, 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.640 which grow basically everywhere from Florida up to Nova Scotia 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.400 UM west of the Rocky or east of the Rockies 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.600 uh in North America. UM. And there's a couple of 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.800 other kinds to from what I saw. James Beard, the 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.240 revered UM chef and food guy, UH, he said that 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:01.439 you could substitute um a Oregon truffle for a white 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.359 alba truffle and it would do. Yeah, if he signed 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.600 off on it. That means it's definitely okay. Well, they're 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.440 not cheap either, I mean, I think these American varieties 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:14.880 can go for like a hundred bucks a pound, which 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:19.040 is a lot of money for a pound of something. Um, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:20.960 but it's not like you know, we'll get to the 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.280 crazy prices at these auctions later on. But it's nothing 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:30.320 like European mushroom around European truffles, uh, namely Italian and French. 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.639 Like you said, I think Spain is the largest producer 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:38.960 of truffles. Then you have UK, Australia, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:45.800 New Zealand, and then China apparently is uh really involved 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.600 in the truffle market and kind of undercutting price wise. Right. Yes, um, 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.840 I actually saw that Australia is killing it in the 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:59.919 truffle cultivating game. Yeah, they started in and that was 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.800 when they first inoculated their saplings. I also saw another 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:04.439 way to do it, chuck, is even easier. You just 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.800 take a bunch of truffle puade up, dip the oak 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:15.440 sapling roots into this puree and just grow those injections. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.760 No injection necessary. I'm sure the oak prefers that way too. 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.960 It's just a little baby, um. But they the Australia's 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:29.600 got their first harvest and they are growing paragore truffles, 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.679 which paragore truffles are less rare, maybe because of Australia 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.960 than the white alba truffles from the Piedmont of Italy 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:43.040 and Croatia. Um and the alba truffles are far more expensive. 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.720 But a lot of people prefer the paragore black truffle 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.840 from France. Just taste um in general that a lot 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:52.919 of people prefer the black truffle. So that's the one 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.639 that the Australians are growing, and they now rival in 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:03.520 the harvest by weight what France every year and they're good, Yes, there, 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.920 it's the same thing. It's that truffle and they're supposedly amazing. Well, 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:08.640 I'm sure there are some people that the French would 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.280 probably say, no, no, no, the tera war is not 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.040 the same, of course, you know, that's exactly what they 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.840 would say. In the Australians would say, forget that mate. 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:25.199 How is that Australia truffle season is short? Depending on 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.960 the truffle, I mean, they're all short seasons. But you're 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:32.000 gonna get your white and burgundies from September to December 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.840 and then winter blacks from December to March. Being kit 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.080 these in February and March, and then summer black and 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.600 white truffles from May to August. And the reason why 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.119 we are mentioning just when truffle season comes around is 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:50.680 because truffles, they do freeze them and they do can them, 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:52.960 but it's not the same. You want to eat a 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:55.320 truffle within four to six days after you take it 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.240 out of the ground. Yeah. This this the truffle market 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:00.199 is one of those rare ones where there is a 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:02.880 lot of hype and there's a lot of like Fraser 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.919 and Niles Crane types running around buying this stuff up 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:07.800 and caring about it and talking about it to their 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:12.520 friends and all that. But it's not in it's not 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.880 a bloated market in that respect, like it is genuinely 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.640 scarce in supply, and in the United States it's even 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.000 scarcer because, like you said, we've got a failure rate 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.120 and growing them here ourselves, and they have such a 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:30.080