New Food Wednesday: March 7, 2012

It's a rock! It's a potato! It's a truflle; well sort of...

Find out what it is after the jump

 It's actually a "Pecan Truffle,"  or Tuber lyonii.

With all the hype about European truffle farms opening across the Southeastern U.S., I thought it would be a good idea to spend a little time assessing this all but forgotten native fungi. 

Like it's European cousins, the white truffle (Tuber magnatum) and the black or Perigord truffle (Tuber melanosporum), the Pecan truffle seems to be attracted the fruit bearing pecan trees of the deep South.  In fact according the University of Georgia,

"this truffle thrives in some pecan orchards, and in favorable years can be found readily. Some growers report sweeping them up with the pecans at harvest, only to separate them out with sticks, rocks, etc. and disposing of them." (www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fruits/pecantruffles/index.html)

Admittedly, I have never tasted pecan truffles (other than the ones made with chocolate), but I am extremely curious.  I'm thinking this could easily become my next culinary obsession, complete with a visit to some of the pecan farms near Montgomery!

I am also surprised that with the current preference for locally produced foodstuffs that these oddities haven't made a bigger splash in the culinary world, especially with so many pecan farms near the Southern culinary mecca, Atlanta. 

Perhaps this blog will provide the lowly and forgotten pecan truffle with a little needed press!

Eat good food.  Drink good beer.  And above all, stay classy!