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White and Black Truffle specialities
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There are several well known truffle-sorts and it is difficult to list them completely.
Anyway, two are the main categories in which the rare truffle is divided, and that is the white truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico) and the black truffle (Tuber Magnatum Vitt.). The invective between white versus black truffle supporters goes on since a lot of time and it is difficult to find equal opinions.
However, we consider the white truffle as the most precious since it is rarer, more expensive and mostly sought by the best italian chefs. Even Artusi states it: the black truffle is the worst among all since it looses quickly its smell and fragrance;.
Since 1985 the area of the hills near San Miniato has been recognized by Tuscan region as one of the best tuscan white truffle productive areas.
This area of hills includes a wide part of Tuscany heartland and more than 30 municipalities between the districts of Pisa and Firenze.
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Truffles have several sizes, which go from a few grams to some hundred grams; some rare exemplars can reach even a kilo and a half and a length of some ten centimeters.
The larger a truffle is, the more expensive is, since its quality increases significantly, while for the fragrance the most important thing is its ripening, that is the period of its picking.
White truffle is usually picked from september-october untill the beginning of genuary (even though the best picking months are october and november). You can find truffles already in jjuly, but they are very low-quality, with poor smell and fragrance and short-term (they are commonly called "marcia"), and whose picking seems to cause damages to the ripening of the real high quality truffles in they are in the area.
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Truffles are sought by the so-called "truffle-seekers"; they are mainly retired persons or farmers, people living in the countryside and knowing exactly where truffles grow (they are also good in keeping their secrets).
This is a job of sacrifices, fatigue but above all of small secrets; the research is usually made during the night, with electric torches, in thick and wet woods, on rough grounds, following dogs appropriately trained.
Even though some real expert truffle-seekers are able to find truffles without dogs, to find out and dig truffles it is necessary a well trained dog (training starts usually when the dog is 4/5 months old and it follows methods based on truffle-seekers' experiences); a well trained truffle-dog is quoted even some thousand euros.
In the evening the picking is brought to the known dealer who will sell the precious product on the market, both directly and as gastronomy specialties produced even nowadays according to old processing methods.
Source: San Miniato truffle city; FM edition
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