Oregon black truffle ◆

Truffe noire d’Oregon

What it is

Leucangium carthusianum is not a Tuber at all — it sits in the Morchellaceae, closer kin to a morel than to a Périgord truffle — and it smells of pineapple and green apple, turning musky as it ripens. Cooks in the Pacific Northwest use it exactly where a black truffle would be absurd: on custard, on chocolate, on cream.

In the kitchen

Infuse it rather than shave it: sealed overnight with cream, or with eggs still in their shells, it gives up the fruit aroma completely. Heat destroys that note, so the infused cream goes in off the fire.

Goes with

Cream White chocolate Pineapple Apple Egg Honey Vanilla

In season alongside

Woodcock Bianchetto truffle Black trumpet Blackcurrant buds Blood orange Blue foot mushroom

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