Posted on 03/10/2007 9:10:55 PM PST by bruinbirdman
The French have fought a losing battle with the vineyards of California and suffered the indignity of having their elegant pommes frites renamed "Freedom Fries".
Now they face a new challenge from America over their most highly-prized and aromatic delicacy.
Just a few miles from the birthplace of frontier pioneer Davy Crockett, mushroom expert Tom Michaels has unlocked the secret of commercial production of the famous Périgord black truffle.
In a breakthrough that could one day make an American-grown Périgord truffle as ubiquitous worldwide as the Big Mac, Mr Michaels has produced his first crop of the pungent nodules in his orchard, deep in rural Tennessee.
Seven years after planting acres of hazelnut trees impregnated with the spores of Tuber melanosporum, the 59-year-old scientist discovered just a few weeks ago that his experiment had finally born fruit. Recalling the moment of discovery, he said "I was jumping around yelling 'Eureka'."
Mr Michaels estimates that his first crop of Périgord truffles could weigh as much as 150lb. With French truffles currently priced at around £850 per pound, he is sitting on a potential gold mine worth at least £120,000.
Confirmation that the truffle was the real thing came later in the kitchen of the famed French chef Daniel Boulud, whose eponymous restaurant in Manhattan boasts two Michelin stars.
Mr Boulud, who was raised on his family's farm near Lyon, is said to have filled his nostrils with the heady aroma of Mr Michaels's truffles and declared: "This is it. The first time in America. This Tennessee truffle is the real thing.''
Until now Périgord black truffles have been grown almost exclusively in Europe, with the lion's share coming from France. Once widely grown in the 19th century, French truffle production plummeted over the past century as ancient cultivation techniques were lost and prices skyrocketed. Small quantities of commercial Périgord truffles have been grown in Tasmania and New Zealand, but the scale of Mr Michaels's harvest is unprecedented.
French truffle growers are said to deliberately restrict production to keep prices high.
A recent dinner for millionaire gourmets at a Bangkok hotel, which included three-and-a-half ounces of Périgord truffles shaved over each plate of the fish course, cost more than £12,000 a head.
Mr Michaels's success represents the vanguard of the American black truffle industry. Although the region is best known for growing tobacco, the acidity of the soil and the local climate are an almost exact match with the Périgord region of France.
Truffle cultivation is funded by the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, which aims to encourage tobacco farmers to diversify into less harmful crops. Some 125 truffle orchards have started in the region with some already producing the coveted tubers.
Aside from a slight falling out in 2003, when France's criticism of US foreign policy led to the symbolic renaming of French fries as "Freedom fries", America has for the most part retained a love affair with French cuisine. The same is true of the truffle.
Maybe those old boys with their pigs and their secret truffle orchards were promoting a fraud just to keep the price up.
Seems Tuber melanosporum passes the two star chef test growing on hazelnut roots.
Maybe it would work on walnut trees, too
yitbos
White truffle
. . . The Tuber magnatum [White truffle, Alba truffle] truffles sell between 200€ and 400€ per hectogram ($1000 - $2000 per pound). They produce a scent that mimics a male pig sex hormone, and for this reason, female pigs have been used historically in Europe to help find truffles. However, more recently, dogs have become preferred for truffle hunting since they can be trained to just find the truffles whereas sows eat the truffles as soon as they find them. . . .
The French are disgusting pansies. No one wants to eat that crap.
What a minute...can you fry it?
Tennessee truffel sniffers.
Dont knock it till you try it Garlic Snails are very very nice and i dont care if they are french, icelandic or hawaiian they taste great. Just because you aint tried dont mean they are bad...maybe you need to expand your horizens
French, are we?
OMG, you are right. They started using dogs. Oh wait, dogs are unclean too. huh.
Darn.... laughing so hard at that pic I can't sleep!!!!
That is beyond funny!
I think this is an interesting agri ping
Lol, no frenchie here but have worked in fine-dining with CMCs' for over thirty years...
See also #22, I'm a particular fan of the bianco fungi from Piemonte.
I've also seen many attempts to cultivate the coveted black morel native to this area and they are just pitiful by comparison, so I'm skeptical of the result.
What the hell, that's missing the whole point of truffles. They are a flavoring to be used in miniscule quantities. I've had both black and white truffles, which are truly delicious, but trust me, a little goes a long way. I don't think I'd want to eat three and a half ounces even if someone bought them for me.
That dinner sounds like a penis-measuring contest to me. These are the kind of rich Asian dingalings who mix their Mouton '45 with Coca-Cola and use the rest for cooking wine.
-ccm
Cobra64, you have quite the sense of humor!
What this means is that there is no longer any reason for France's existence.
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