Singletons & Co. Trufflewood Cheddar – a lusciously earthy Lancashire-made cheese infused with black truffles and porcini mushrooms. It was love at first bite and I’ve been hopelessly and unapologetically addicted to it ever since. I’d happily eat it every day for every meal if given the chance.
Such is the power these visually unappealing ascomycete fungi have over some of us. Not that Singletons’ cheeses don’t stand perfectly well by themselves, but add little bits of these subterraneanly fruited fungi to it, imparting their almost indescribable intoxicating aroma, and it’s pure sensory bliss.
So just what is at the root of it all? Why do these strange little fungi balls have such extraordinary qualities? Why do so many go to such trouble – and pay such high prices – to obtain them? And what role do some particularly skilled dogs play in the matter?
In his new book Truffle Hound; On the Trail of the World’s Most Seductive Scent, with Dreamers, Schemers, and Some Extraordinary Dogs, James Beard award-winning author Rowan Jacobsen guides his readers down the forest path, through kitchen, into the past, and along market aisles to uncover the mysteries of these curious as well as curiously captivating fungi, the people infatuated by them as well as those who prey upon such infatuations, and the Lagotto Romagnolo dogs whose extraordinary natural olfactory abilities are put to the challenge of locating them.
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