Due to the coronavirus situation we have had to make a number of alterations to the way we are operating:
- We are not currently sending out any physical goods (truffle trees, books, shavers, oils etc.).
- If you need to buy a present, you can still purchase gift vouchers for truffle hunting experience days, truffle trees and truffles. Those for truffle hunting experience days are valid for two years, the others for one year. As soon as you have paid you are automatically emailed the voucher to print out and give (or email) to the recipient.
- We are still taking bookings for truffle hunting experience days for this coming season (late September - January). If for any reason they cannot run, you will be able to move to another date.
- Unfortunately, the truffle dog training workshops we had planned for May and June (see separate article) are currently cancelled. We hope to run additional ones after the all clear.
Stay safe.
James
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Our Truffles Served at BAFTA Dinner
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Sustainability was a key priority for the organisers of the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) back in February. The menu produced by BAFTA’s head chef Anton Manganaro and Paul Bates, the executive head chef of Mayfair’s Grosvenor House Hotel, used seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, and included two vegan courses. Our truffles were part of one of the main courses - thyme-basted Shropshire chicken served with chestnut mushroom barley with a ballotine of Potash Farm walnuts, Dorset truffle-creamed parsnips and roasted beets.
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Olde Ways of Eating Truffles
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The ways that truffles were consumed in England in the past were often quite a long way from what we think of today. A 1733 recipe book written by the Chief Cook to the Earl of Chesterfield had several truffle recipes.
Truffles done au court Bouillon
Clean your truffles well, boil them about half an hour in a kettle with as much wine as water; season them with salt and pepper. Being done, put a folded napkin in your dish, then take your truffles out of the kettle, and lay them upon the napkin, serve them up hot.
At another time you may boil them in seasoned water only.
And at other times you may let them marinate during two hours in a glassful of white wine, seasoned with salt and pepper. Make a paste without butter, roll it very thin, put in the same your truffles with their marinade, and wrap them up in the said paste so that no air come to them, then bake them in the oven about an hour, or let them be done in hot cinders.
At another time your truffles being marinated after the said manner, wrap them up one after another in paper, and dress them in hot cinders. Being done, serve them up as before.
The biggest truffles are best for this dainty dish; but the best way of dressing them is in paste.
Gilbert White (1720-1793), the pioneering English naturalist, ecologist and ornithologist, wrote about “trufles” (as it was spelt then) 20 times in his letters later published as The Natural History of Selborne. He had truffles growing in the hedges of his garden in the Hampshire village of Selborne: A trufle-hunter tryed my tall hedges, & found some bulbs of those peculiar plants, which have neither roots, nor branches, nor stems.
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White only mentions cooking them once: Stewed some trufles: the flavour of their juice very fine, but the roots hard, & gritty. They were boiled in water, then sliced, & stewed in gravy.
The West Sussex village of Patching was known for its truffles with them celebrated in a Patching Truffle Pie. This contained veal, fat ham, lean ham, goose livers and shallot. It was topped with sliced truffles and a pastry lid then baked. Prior to serving, the lid was lifted and a glass of Madeira was poured in!
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Truffle Dog Training Workshops
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We prepared this newsletter a couple of weeks ago and were all set to today announce four new truffle dog training workshop dates for the coming months. Sadly, our plans have now had to change due to the Coronavirus and they are cancelled. We are working with the venue owners to pencil in some new dates for later in the year and will await Government advice before we announce them via a future newsletter and start taking bookings. We know some of you are very keen to attend one of these and are sorry that your wait is further extended.
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Attendees on one of last year's workshops.
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Olde Ways of Eating Truffles (continued)
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Mrs Beeton’s 1861 Book of Household Management sold nearly two million copies by 1868. Between 1875 and 1914 it was probably the most often-consulted cookery book. She was aware of English Truffles knowing they are found on the downs of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Kent in forests with dry light soils. She included several truffle recipes in her book:
Truffles au Naturel - Truffles are cleaned and wrapped in buttered paper, baked for an hour and served in a hot napkin.
Truffles with Champagne - They are stewed with bacon, carrot, turnip, onions, herbs, champagne and stock.
Italian Mode of Dressing Truffles - The truffles are sliced and baked with oil, salt and pepper parsley, garlic, mace and lemon-juice.
Truffles a L'Italienne - Truffles are sliced and sautéed with parsley, shallot, salt, pepper, and butter before being heated in gravy, lemon juice and cayenne.
If you are inspired by Mrs Beeton, the full recipes are available in the book which can be found on-line in its entirety here.
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This file comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom.
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In December 1938, The Times ran an article about English Truffles headlined 'Truffles to Seek: A Subterranean Harvest'. André Simon, a French-born wine merchant, gourmet, and prolific wine writer who lived in England, wrote to the newspaper, saying that he had never tasted English truffles. His published letter in turn, produced bulging bags of mail from readers who were passionate about English truffles, and had fond memories of eating them.
One writer said his mother had them fried and then simmered in stock, but by far the most common method of eating them was well boiled and served hot in a napkin. The skin was cut off (not an easy operation when they were hot!). They were eaten with butter, some people added salt and pepper. From people's comments “they had a wonderful nutty flavour”, “they are food for the Gods”, I might have to give this a go next season!
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Truffle News From Around (and beyond!) The Globe
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Italy’s white truffle hunters worry about climate change
A warming climate has already pushed back peak Italian White truffle season from October into November. As these truffles cannot be cultivated efforts are being made to preserve the environment that they grow in. Incentives paying property owners to maintain host trees that might otherwise be removed. Truffle associations are also making agreements with absentee landowners to mange their woods in a way that promotes truffle growth.
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Life on Mars? Organic truffle molecules discovered on Red Planet
Organic molecules found on Earth in coal, crude oil, and white truffles have been discovered on Mars, suggesting the possible existence of early life on the planet.
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