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'truffleteers' to widespread parts of the
country covering Piedmonte, Tuscany, Emilia,
Marche, Umbria and Abbruzzi. Many of the
destinations were remote, up tortuous tracks of
National Park terrain. Reservations had been
made and dogs promised!
These latter turned out to be scruffy mongrels
of all shapes and sizes, mainly lean and small,
yet each possessing the highly valued
'educated' nose for the truffle and capable of
detecting the tiniest of these elusive nuggets
amidst a forest of trees.
Pigs are commonly used elsewhere and
historically pre—date dogs as it is natural for
a pig to hunt and eat truffles; it is said the
truffle gives off the scent of the wild boar
which attracts the sow to root for it. Unlike
the pig which has to be restrained from eating
its find, the dog needs to be trained to search
for the truffle, yet fortunately reveals no
eagerness to gobble it up. The dogs are
rewarded with dry bread and give the impression
of being kept pretty hungry, at least for some
hours before the hunt. It hardly seems a fair
exchange for the prize they find and there is a
truffle cartoon in Alba which shows a
disconsolate dog captioned 'for finding such
treasure, our reward is stale bread!".
I am inclined to think the scarcity of this
gourmet's delight explains why many people in
Britain are unfamiliar with the sight or even
the taste of the truffle. I also suspect that
few on acquaintance would be attracted by its
smell and flavour, which are difficult to