Always follow your nose! News for truffle fans

There are many secrets about truffles, we reveal at least two: How to clean the "diamonds of the kitchen" and where you can get to the bottom of them.

Whether white or black, from Piedmont or Périgord, their inconspicuous appearance stands in stark contrast to the myths surrounding truffles. For thousands of years, people puzzled over the origin of the bulging nuggets found under oak trees. Did these mushrooms without leaves, roots or visible seeds come from lightning or even from rotting leaves? Were they delicacies or could they be safely left to the pigs, which greedily dug them out of the ground? And did they really have an aphrodisiac effect? The question of how best to store and process them in order to preserve their complex aroma is comparatively pragmatic. In any case, they should only be washed directly before preparation, so they last longer. Special brushes are available to remove soil crumbs. The "Giacomo" model, designed by Job Smeets and shaped like a gold-plated sniffer, has now been launched by the organizers of the Alba International Truffle Fair.

Job Smeets' gold-plated truffle brush is being produced by Gufram for the Fiera Internazionale Tartufo Bianco d'Alba. It is the latest in a series of truffle tools by well-known designers.

Slim alternative: Two-sided truffle brush with bristles for black and white truffles by Doctor Tartufo.

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