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Why Real Truffles Are So Expensive | So Expensive - YouTube
Channel: Business Insider
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Luxury cousins of the mushroom,
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truffles are an indulgent
food enjoyed across the world.
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But these fragrant fungi will cost you.
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In 2014, the world's largest
white truffle was flown
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to New York accompanied
by a security guard
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and sold at auction for $61,000.
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Discovered in Italy, this gigantic fungus
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weighed almost 2 kilos.
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So, what is it that
makes them so expensive?
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There are a lot of types of truffle.
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There are at least 40 species,
many of which aren't edible,
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and new species have been
discovered as recently as 2018.
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You've probably seen
luxury truffle products
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in supermarkets or fancy restaurants,
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but the unique truffle
flavor you recognize
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might not be real truffle at all.
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Cheap truffle oil often hasn't been
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anywhere near a real truffle.
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Many cheaper truffle products
use 2,4-dithiapentane,
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a synthesized compound containing one
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of the main aromatic
components of foot odor,
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guaranteed to give it that "earthy" taste.
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Real truffles are seasonal and pricey,
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with a short shelf life.
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They were originally sniffed
out using truffle pigs,
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but while pigs are very
good at finding truffles,
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they're also very good
at eating them, too.
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And these days, dogs are much more common
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truffle-hunting companions.
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These fungi can be found across the world,
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but they all require a very
specific climate to grow.
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While different varieties may have
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somewhat different requirements,
one thing is certain.
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You can't have truffles without trees.
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James Feaver: Truffles are
always found with trees,
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and they have to be the
right type of trees.
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Under the ground, the truffle
is just the fruiting body,
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so an equivalent to an apple.
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And we've also got a
lot of then what we call
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the mycelium, microscopic-level threads,
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and up to 100 meters
in a teaspoon of soil.
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And this mycelium is actually
attached to the roots
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of a tree like the fingers
of glove onto a hand.
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And it sort of extends
the reach of the tree out.
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And it actually takes
up water and nutrients
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and passes them to the tree,
and the tree gives it sugars
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in return, so to help the
truffles, the fruit, develop.
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Narrator: Even when you have
exactly the right conditions,
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truffles aren't guaranteed,
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and hunting them is a
labor-intensive process.
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Once you know where to
look, you have to sniff out
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and dig up each truffle by hand,
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and they can be tricky to find.
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Feaver: Good boy, thank
you, good boy, come!
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So he just told us there
it's still in the ground.
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So do I want to take it
out of the ground or not?
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It all depends on if it's ripe.
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If it's unripe, there's
no point in having it.
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So the nose comes into play.
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And we actually sniff the ground for it.
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Narrator: It may take a while,
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but finding a good one can
make it worth the work.
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Feaver: Yeah, that's a nice one.
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Yeah, that's probably about
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70, 80 grams.
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Narrator: Truffles also
have a short season,
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often appearing for only
a few months of the year.
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And even when you do
get your hands on them,
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they don't last for long.
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Feaver: An unripe
truffle, unlike a tomato,
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which you could cut from the vine
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and ripen on your windowsill,
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once the truffle is out of the
ground, the clock is ticking.
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So it's just sort of slowly
gonna degrade over time.
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So we want to get it out to
the customers nice and fast.
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Narrator: After just five
days out of the ground,
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that pungent truffle
smell will have halved.
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You can farm many truffle varieties,
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besides the rare Italian whites.
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Many people have been successful
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in setting up truffle
orchards, but it's not easy.
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Trees need to be planted in
the right soil conditions,
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inoculated with truffle fungus,
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and often irrigated constantly.
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It can take as long as six years
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before you get a good truffle harvest,
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and there's no guarantee that
the fungi will grow at all.
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So after all that effort, what
do they actually taste like?
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Ju Shardlow: Ooh.
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Claudia Romeo: Hm.
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Leon Siciliano: The
smell just made me think
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it was gonna be really strong.
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The flavor is actually quite subtle.
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There's a nuttiness there.
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There's, like, an earthy flavor there.
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Ju: Actually quite light and fragrant.
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It tastes a lot nicer than it smells.
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It smells like damp socks.
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Claudia: That's good.
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I mean, this is the first
time I've actually eaten
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a truffle by itself.
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You know, it's a bit like mushroom,
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but it's more of a meaty, meaty bite.
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Narrator: These days,
farming has taken over
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as our primary source of truffles,
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and today, 70% of the world's
truffles are cultivated.
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Through the loss of
woodland and climate change,
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the number of wild truffles
has decreased significantly.
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Since the 19th century,
production in France has fallen
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from over 1,000 tonnes a
season to just 30 tonnes.
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And climate change could mean
that truffles will disappear
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altogether in the future.
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Feaver: The weather
conditions are so important,
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not just immediately,
over the whole season.
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We're getting much lower numbers
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and much lower average size.
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A truffle is about 70% water,
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so it needs rainfall to help it grow.
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Some UK truffle scientists are thinking
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that your traditional areas,
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the climate is gonna move further north,
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and they're not gonna
have a truffle industry
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within I think perhaps 50 years.
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There's threats, there's opportunities,
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but rain, we do need rain.
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When we get a dry summer,
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the holidaymakers, they're delighted,
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but I keep crossing my fingers
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for a bit of rain every now and again.
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