It is one of those products that many people have heard of and even tried, but about which little or nothing is known. Always associated with haute cuisine and gourmets of the world, The truffles They enjoy a reputation that always places them in the premium and aspirational world. Part of its prestige has to do with its scarcity and the peculiarity of its aroma and flavor. The few places on the planet where it is possible to grow it make it highly coveted and its price rises to 2,000 euros per kilo. In Espartillar, in the province of Buenos Airesthe project the enterprise that carries out “New World Truffles”strives to place this food in a broader category than a mere luxury treat.
Oaks, holm oaks and hazelnuts hide the diamond in their roots. The black truffle is born from the symbiotic relationship between these trees and a fungus, the “tuber melanosporum” or “truffle from Pèrigord”. As the fruit of a clandestine love, it grows underground in very specific conditions of soil, acidity and climate. She has a nine-month cycle and ends up giving birth to her treasure between June and September, when the earth begins to smell different. The only way to harvest it is through trained dogs who know how to spot them. And for some years you can participate in this very particular harvest.
hunting dogs
Lola is a Breton truffle hunter, brought from Spain six years ago who lives in the house of Tomas De Hagen, forest engineer in charge of the 50 hectares of the Truffles of the New World project. Lola has the orange fur and vitality of the boys. Tomas warns that when going out to collect, you shouldn’t party too much, at least at first, because the dogs looking for truffles get distracted and end up chasing bugs. The key to collecting for animals is to keep it short and playful, not a job. They are outings of only forty-five minutes to an hour a day and they are rewarded by playing every time they find one. “Truffles of the New World” has nine trained dogs, several descendants of Lola, to mark truffles by smell. She is the queen because she knows how to look for wild and loose truffles, and also because she finds them faster.
“The truffles appear at different times and not evenly. Dogs detect the scent when it is ripe. The land around it smells like truffles. Once harvested, it does not ripen anymore and it is a product that breathes, this is key in its treatment”, tells us Faustino Terradas, in charge of the company’s marketing.
The aroma of truffle is present many times, both in gastronomy and in daily life, but since it is not a product that we consume regularly, it is difficult to detect it. Truffles have very varied descriptors. There is talk of aromas close to tubers, earth, mushrooms, and also animal proteins and umami flavor. Eccentric and attractive, it is capable of awakening gastronomic complexity in some meals, especially in dishes where proteins and primary products predominate, which are also generally good conductors of flavor. By-products such as oils and derivatives have not yet been able to fully express it and those who have tried truffle oil may not have had the best experience.
“When the truffle is fresh, its aroma does not tire. And if it’s not good, you can tell right away because it exhausts you and you don’t like it anymore. Bad scents can be of the medicinal type. It also often happens that the oils are not extracted from natural truffles but from synthetic aromas that confuse and leave a bad impression. The truffle has more aroma than taste and it depends a lot on what we combine it with. The joke is to catch the scent. We insist on truffle butter and scrambled eggs because they are simple things that capture it well”, explains Terradas, who knows the particular pairings of this fruit inside out.
The most conventional wine pairing, due to its aromatic palette, is Pinot Noir, especially those that are born in Burgundy and have truffles as their descriptor. But we can also find a classic agreement with wines from Italian areas, such as Barolo and Barbaresco. However, if we are going to expand the game and the way of experimenting, we should take into account some white wines or the new fashion of oranges that contain tannins and complex notes that can go very well in this game.
The story of a business
“We started looking for suitable areas and climates in 2006. We studied places in the world where it was grown, such as Europe, Australia and Chile. We knew that until then no one had been able to plant truffles in the country and we wanted to find the optimal conditions. In 2008 we set up the greenhouse, we collected oak seeds and then we inoculated the spores of the truffle fungus so that it would make symbiosis with the young tree. Then we moved them to the field. This is how the production was born, in 2012 we bought the first 25 hectares and in 2014, another 25. It takes between four and five years for them to start yielding 400 grams per hectare. After approximately 12 years of age, production stabilizes at 40 kilos per hectare,” says Juan Carlos La Grotteria, one of the promoters of the project.
Classification is key to being able to sell them. You can be an unsorted bulk producer, but to export, the work must be precision. The customer asks for quality and for them to arrive perfect in the cold chain. The best-known categories are the “Extra”, which is round and weighs more than 20 grams, with a very good aroma and shape. The “First” category is essentially the same as the “Extra” but has an irregular shape and a minimum weight of 10 grams. “First in pieces” refers to a type of truffles that were damaged for some reason during the harvest or that had an affected part that had to be cut to leave them clean and in good condition. These three types are for home consumption and even for restaurants. “Second” is a category where ripening defects, insect damage, or sizes and small pieces are allowed. These have less intensity of aroma and are less even, they are used for home preparations. The fifth category is called “Brisuras” and this is where everything comes in, ripe and immature, in the form of small sheets inside a bag.
Where to try them?
The process by which the fruit develops is blind and has always had a halo of mystery. It’s a lot of fun coming to harvest with the dogs on a weekend. The practice is done in the field in the winter season and culminates with a truffle tasting organized by Juliette, a resto from Pigüé who is in charge of the elaboration on site. You can also visit the Truffle Festival in Espartillar, on the long weekend in June, where, in addition to this product, you can meet other local producers who make cheese, honey, and even lavender tea. The place is surrounded by mountains and picturesque towns. You have to reserve in time so as not to miss the harvest.
The restaurants where we can find them in Buenos Aires are, for example, Alo’s, Crizia, Don Julio, Anchoíta, Aramburu, Osten, Olivetti and Elen, among others. Restaurants from wineries such as Riccitelli and Susana Balbo’s Osadía de Crear, in the province of Mendoza, also incorporated them.
While there are other truffles under development in the country, none are currently exporting. Truffles from the New World sends its most successful truffles to the US and France. “The goal is to expand without breaking, to develop without distorting the chain that makes us who we are, which is why we see ourselves in the obligation to continue researching and investing,” concludes Faustino Terradas, who knows that growing from small towns is not always easy. and that this is a model that is achieving it. Undoubtedly, a breath of fresh air in a country that, despite its difficulties, continues to create wonders.
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by Mariana Gianella
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