Spice finds a giant Perigord truffle.
The whole of Australia is Perigord truffle crazy right now. In the past few weeks alone I’ve eaten some of the best and most aromatic truffle dishes that I have ever come across. Chefs report they have never seen so many from Australia and summer ones imported from France.
Today, one hour out of Melbourne about ten minutes the other side of some McBungalows I was part of a group hunting for truffles led by Spice (aka Mazasuka Star Struck), who is two weeks away from giving birth to pups, and her owner Sue Brimacombe.
We are on Drago and Ivka Javor’s five year old plantation of some 210 saplings which yielded its first truffle last year.
Digging out the truffle with a spoon.
Spice, a two and a half year-old Australian Shepherd, was trained with truffle oil on a piece of cotton wool for a month or so. She snuffles at the base of the tree and will scrape the ground where there may be a truffle.
Ivka Javor sniffs her prized truffle
Ivka then sniffs the ground followed by a few of the chefs on the Australian Culinary Federation outing.
A couple of Perigord truffles the size of marbles are snuffled out and this giant one, about 140 grams dirty. Drago says that the ideal size is about 70 or 80 grams.
Spice is rewarded and on to the next tree.
The whopper.
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