Truffle hunting, Oregon-style

OREGON—Ever since the fateful day that some brave Gaul decided to actually eat the earthy, black fungus his pigs were rooting out of the ground, the forests of rural France have been ground zero for truffle hunting. One of the most expensive foods on the earth, certain French and Italian truffles can fetch upwards of $2,000 per kilo (that’s a little over 2 pounds) in the US. But recent European hauls have decreased exponentially, due to over-picking, weather and the wheels of progress--otherwise known as condos and shopping malls being built on prime truffling ground.

As scarcity becomes increasingly troublesome, eyes are shifting to Oregon as an emerging source of culinary-quality truffles. Though they’ve been an underground delicacy for many years, Northwest truffles have long been dismissed by gourmands as “false” truffles—lower in quality and flavor than those found in France. Now, however, chefs are suddenly turning to these locally found truffles as a lower-cost alternative to those of Europe. And consumers are increasingly interested. Currently, Oregon is the largest producer of truffles in the United States, though its production is still dwarfed by that of Europe.

Mostly found among the roots of Douglas Fir trees, Oregon produces both black and white truffles, which are known by different scientific names and have very different flavor profiles. The black are said to be much more pungent and earthy, and more similar to the highly esteemed French Black Truffle; while the whites are a bit more delicate and nutty, more similar to Italian white truffles. Though there are some 30 species that have been identified, only a few are harvested commercially.

Did you know?

Truffles are actually found in six of the seven continents—none have been found on Antarctica, yet. Chinese black truffles, which are often passed off as higher quality French fungi, have been in the marketplace for years. As of yet, truffles can’t be cultivated and are only found in the wild, growing underground near certain types of oak trees. Special pigs or dogs are typically employed to root out the fragrant fungi—with the downside being that they often eat the truffles before they can be picked up by the eager hunters.

They are increasingly being found, however, on the menus of local restaurants, like the Joel Palmer House in Dayton, Oregon—the heart of Oregon’s Pinot Noir Wine Country. Chef Jack Czarnecki, who has long been an avid mushroomer, has turned his attention recently to truffles. He was one of five chefs who recently prepared a truffle-inspired dinner at the annual Oregon Truffle Festival (www.oregontrufflefestival.com). Other chefs using local truffles frequently in their dishes include Portland’s Heathman Hotel chef, Philippe Boulot and Jamie North of Amuse in Ashland.

The truffles mostly show up on winter menus, when the truffles are at their best. Though they can be frozen and stored for months—just waiting to add a pungent, earthy, unexplainably aphrodisiac quality to many dishes.

A rare commodity

But finding the truffles isn’t as easy as going to the local farm market. Like mushroom hunters, trufflers are a secretive lot, due in part to the fact that they often find the truffles on private land. Worth up to $100 a pound (considerably less than the prices garnered for their European counterparts) Oregon trufflers have to find many more truffles—a painstaking process that involves dogs, pigs and raking at roots—in order to make their money. Understandably, when an area is ripe with truffles, the hunters don’t want to advertise.

So, why not just grow them on a farm? Most truffles have proven to be ill-adapted to cultivation. Unlike other fungi, like mushrooms, they rely on hungry mammals to disperse their spores via, uh, the old-fashioned method of what-goes-in-must-come-out method. You can’t just plant a truffle seed and wait to see what happens. A few eager farmers are trying specialized methods of inoculating Douglas Fir roots with truffle spores, and achieving modest success, though truffling remains a mostly hunt-and-scavenge operation.

Like European truffles, however, Oregon is suffering its own problems with over-picking, overzealous trufflers damaging private land, and unsavory hunters picking young truffles that lack flavor and body (and often go “bad” very quickly.)

Truffling enthusiasts, however, say that the irony is that there remain many, many undiscovered troves in the backyards and forests of Oregon. Sleeping quietly beneath the surface of the forest floor, they call out with their strange and wonderful odor, just waiting to be found by those who know where to look.