American-Farmed White Truffles Were Almost Impossible. That's Changing. | WSJ Operating Costs

on.wsj.com/3xh8fAZ In truffle hunting rivalries, some dogs pay the price as some hunters poison one another’s dogs with tainted snacks. Read more about the dangers that some of these dogs are in when searching for truffles.

Nowhere do the mention what they taste like. As an Italian from Piemonte, I would be interested to know how they compare to the precious Alba truffle, which grows on the roots of poplars and oaks, and is of the species Tuber magnatum. The taste is what makes them so special.

reminds me of the ginseng days, where everyone started growing it, drove the price down and many went out of business not many left in Wisconsin growing ginseng

My first truffle experience was at the pricey ($80 in 2024) Wynn casino buffet in Vegas where they served it with pasta, looking somewhat like the Alfredo sauce but was much better. With each bite, the rich flavors of the white truffle shaves and pasta mingled on my tongue and tasted so good that I had to pause and savor it. Oh yeah, it is something extraordinary, not something ever in my kitchen at home. The memory of that sumptuous buffet, with its unforgettable truffle pasta and succulent prime beef, remains etched in my mind.

Such a unique business. Way to make it work

Thanks for the video I love finding video's like this very fun, positive, a great learning experience, and the science behind it all is really cool.

Impressive work, these truffle dogs are amazing! 🐕‍🦺

The trees are beautiful and needed.....truffles are an acquired taste. I call this a win/win situation. : )

Very interesting documentary, thanks. Truffle infused Kraft Diner FTW!

Amazing video, the algorithm finally got me to a video that I've been hunting for.

Using a $35 Cuisinart kitchen scale to weigh truffles that sell for potentially hundreds of dollars per ounce seems absolutely wild.

I can't believe they are growing truffles on conifers. As I understood it, the trees have to be oak or some other such leaf tree and there can't have been conifers growing in the soil there for the last 50-100 years or something. Looks like these truffles growers are limeing the soil to lower ph and conifers usually can stand more acid than leaf trees, so that part makes sense. Fascinating. There is good video on beginner scent training for puppies on YouTube and around. I love to train a truffle dog.

I appreciate that this is a use of space that preserves forest cover. Even if they aren't truly wild it's better than a warehouse

Props to these farmers

This is AMAZINGGGGG i never knew where truffle comes from!!

Was hoping to learn more about the science. There are two reasons that truffles are rare: 1) certain trees need them in order to live. That is, the truffles provide nutrition to the trees and the trees provide nutrition to the truffles., This, however, happens only when the trees are stressed enough to have to have help to survive. A tree that gets all its nutrition from healthy soil or has enough sunlight is unlikely to need truffles. So, these trees, or the soil, are somehow being stressed enough to cause the truffles to grow but not enough to either endanger the tree or the truffle. The science of how this is done wasn't mentioned. 2) Truffles procreate through animals eating them and pooping them out. That is, animals and truffles have coevolved to need each other. The truffles smell and taste delicious to many types of animals. But, when the truffles are eaten, they go through a process of transformation in the digestive process. This, also, wasn't mentioned in the video. Specifically, how this is recreated in a lab setting.

"it has the flavor of garlic, parmesan, soysauce" $1700 per pound me: ... okay? checks garlic price

Interesting video, awesome that they made it possible to grow trees infused with the spores and also sell them. I got a bit confused regarding the dogs, Lagotto (Romagnolo?) is a pretty common dog and atleast where my dad hunts truffles (Gotland, sweden) with his... they are at an absolute max 2500$ and more like 500-1000$. Maybe it is costly to import them to US but it seem a bit pricey. Fun thing happened: My dad is a good firend with one of the breeders and also has a truffle hunter "company" and when he brought me there for coffee they had recently finished one day of hunting, there were like 20 big plastic boxes stacked on the porch with truffle (dirty, just dug up). I was like "ok, people are very trustful here on this farm, thats alot of money". I recommend a trip to Gotland, as a tourist it´s a nice place but if you like whisky, beer and lamb meat, and truffle, you will thrive!

That price will plummet once the volume increases, classic econ 101

Wow! I didnt know we had them here!