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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 5,795
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 What all the stink is about [WI]
#6417201 - 01/02/07 01:08 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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More cooks seek out pungent fresh truffles, up to $150 an ounce
January 1, 2007 - jsonline.com
By DORIS HAJEWSKI
 When cooking with Italian white truffles, a little goes a long way. At $2,500 a pound for the rare mushrooms, that's a good thing.
"I'm still kind of in awe when I sell them," said Jason Roewer, an assistant manager at Sendik's on Oakland.
The Shorewood grocery is one of three stores owned by John Nehring that stocks them, and Nehring might be the only grocer in the metro area who has the courage to do that, according to his supplier.
"The fresh ones are a little scary to carry," said Jane Harmeyer, sales representative for Isola Imports, a Chicago distributor of Italian food.
The Italian whites, and a black variety that Nehring is offering for $1,100 a pound this year, require a big upfront investment for a food that has a short shelf life, about a couple of weeks.
Interest in the pricey mushrooms has been growing in recent years, Harmeyer said, even in a city such as Milwaukee, which has had a reputation for its blue-collar tastes.
Last month, Bacchus, a Bartolotta restaurant in downtown Milwaukee, served a five-course dinner built around Italian truffles, at a price of $350 a person.
Nehring has also found a market for truffles as an ingredient for home cooks.
"You would not believe the number of people who don't have a lot of money, but they love food," Nehring said. "They'll buy one for Christmas."
Some of the demand has been driven by the popularity of food shows and celebrity chefs on TV.
"People are cooking at home more," Harmeyer said. And foodies are particularly interested in trendy items such as exotic mushrooms.
"People like John Nehring are taking them by the hand and telling them what to do with them," she said.
Because the Italian truffles have such a strong taste and aroma, a cook needs only a small amount to season a dish, the food experts said. A popular way to use them is grated, uncooked, over a plate of fettuccine Alfredo.
Each truffle weighs only a few ounces. At about $155 an ounce for the Italian white truffles and $70 an ounce for the black, the most anyone spends is usually around $300 or $400.
Nehring doesn't put them out for customers to grab at his Sendik's, G. Groppi and V. Richards stores. The mushrooms are stored out of reach, in the cooler. When they are purchased, a manager gets involved, to weigh the mushrooms and set a price.
Some other local high-end grocers, including Sendik's on W. Capitol Driveand Grasch Foods on W. North Ave., both in Brookfield, and Gagliano's in Delafield, stock truffles in jars and take orders for the fresh ones.
Bill Grasch, co-owner of Grasch Foods, said he had offered fresh truffles in the past.
"They just sit there," he said. Now the store stocks black truffles in brine, for about $30 a jar.
Nehring, meanwhile, has sold the pricey fresh varieties for the past three years. The truffles are seasonal, coming in the fall and winter.
Prices are set annually, when pickers in Italy auction them to food distributors. They get the high prices because of the difficulty of the harvest, Harmeyer said.
Truffles grow in the ground, so the pickers use highly trained small dogs - some valued at $200,000 for their special skill - to sniff them out.
"They're watched 24 hours a day," Harmeyer said, explaining that the dogs are in danger of being killed by competitors in the cutthroat world of truffles.
They used to use pigs but switched to dogs because the round truffles would get stuck in the pigs' snouts. Or the pigs would eat a lot of truffles and cut into the profits, she said.
Even here in the United States, Harmeyer uses special care when she gets an order for truffles, delivering them personally.
"I had 4 pounds in my car at one time," she recalled. "The smell is unbelievable. I had to keep the windows open to air it out."
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“Truffles - anyone who does not declare himself ready to leave Paradise or Hell for such a treat is not worthy to be born again.” - Maurice Goudeket
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 SuperD
THE SPIRIT OFTRUTH
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 2,369
Loc: TX
Last seen: 11 hours, 35 minutes
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: veggie]
#6417439 - 01/02/07 05:26 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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<<
They used to use pigs but switched to dogs because the round truffles would get stuck in the pigs' snouts. Or the pigs would eat a lot of truffles and cut into the profits, she said.>>
 I wonder how difficult these would be to cultivate in an outdoor patch?
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I'd like you to meet my local drug dealer 
Bruce Campbell for a day! said: Go misidentify a mushroom please.
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vinsue
OLDFART
Registered: 02/17/04
Posts: 2,947
Loc: Catskills,NY
Last seen: 4 days, 7 hours
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 Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: veggie]
#6417486 - 01/02/07 06:20 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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My dog is named Truffles... but she's no hunter...  
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 [image]http://files.shroomery.org/files/07-11/398071300-shrooms.gif [/image] "All mushrooms are edible; but some only once." ~Croatian proverb
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TheHateCamel
Research &Development -DBK
Registered: 01/31/03
Posts: 15,723
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: SuperD]
#6417520 - 01/02/07 07:05 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
SuperD said:
I wonder how difficult these would be to cultivate in an outdoor patch?
Hasn't been done yet, that's why they are so expensive.
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Helping disrupt Christian Nationalism at every turn.
"...every one knows that a man can overtake a woman unless shes a fitness trainer" -dumbfounded1600
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K1wI
Tortilla Army
Registered: 11/11/06
Posts: 141
Loc: The Desert
Last seen: 1 year, 23 days
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: TheHateCamel]
#6418567 - 01/02/07 02:43 PM (1 year, 7 months ago) |
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and even if an outside cultivation did happen there is no way in hell that the person would even hint to that they have been able to cultivate them, just say they were wild.
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"It's all bla bla bla... and then nothing more."
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Koala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG
Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,727
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: K1wI]
#6418590 - 01/02/07 02:49 PM (1 year, 7 months ago) |
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Or attempt to patent it, like the morel guys.
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You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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Drewwyann
Picker-Upper ofthe Pieces
Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 3,244
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 21 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: Koala Koolio]
#6418997 - 01/02/07 04:53 PM (1 year, 7 months ago) |
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i wanna try some... too bad they cost more than illegal mushrooms. 
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If i didnt lose my mind, it would drive me crazy.
You think of me odd, for the strange things I do,
But don't think twice, I think the same things of you.
  
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Yoschie99
nomad
Registered: 11/24/99
Posts: 3,139
Loc: center of earth
Last seen: 11 days, 7 hours
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Re: What all the stink is about [WI] [Re: veggie]
#6421125 - 01/03/07 10:41 AM (1 year, 7 months ago) |
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we used fresh white truffles for our NYE dinner at work.. and i have to figure out what i want to do with the remainder before they go bad.
yos-
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