Truffle Hunters, The Black Gold Of Aragon

There are traditional crafts with the passage of time are lost due in part to its complexity, changing lifestyle and also due to the migration of rural population to cities.

Today we are going to talk about the truffle hunter, a job hard, sacrificed and requires highly specialized which fewer and fewer people who engage in it and yet the demand for this product does not fall but because the importance of the nose especially in haute cuisine, is a product you are looking for the highest quality.

They are called hunters because they need the fine smell of truffle dogs to find this precious fungus that grows about 30 cm buried near the roots of some woody plants that can be drawn at its best between November and March.

In Aragon there were enough old truffle hunters, and today there are few people who are dedicated to this profession because it requires high expertise and experience to have the skills to find the truffles that will later become one of the star ingredients dishes from famous restaurants.

There are two areas of Aragon in which their geographical and climatic peculiarities can find the best truffles.

One such area is situated in Huesca truffle in the regions of Ribagorza, Sobrarbe, Benabarre, Ainsa and Graus.

The other major area as nationally is the first production area is in Teruel, in the region of Maestrazgo, Sierra de Gúdar, Javalambre and mountain areas of Aragon and Matarraña.

The truffle, also called black gold is a fungus whose price per kilo can exceed 500 euros.

Price according to the value of this delicacy that gives the dishes a unique flavor comes and every year the best restaurants and chefs in the country's bid to seize the best truffles.

These two areas producing fairs dedicated to truffles Truffle where we can learn to make dishes and recipes with truffles and where bids are held to be the best examples.

This area was held in Jaca Huesca on 12 March, the Third Edition of truffle - you and the area was held in Sarrión Teruel during days 3, 4 and 5 December 2010 Fitruf International Truffle Fair.

In our daily home is not easy to use the nose due to its high price, but we can settle for enjoying a range of other products that are more accessible to our pockets that also contain truffles eg Extra Virgin Olive Oil to ecological variety empelt Black or Truffle Risotto with Black Truffle Trufapasión.

If you want more data sconocer about truffle hunters and the properties of this food, you can continue reading the article:

The truffle, black gold, is in AragónFoto Flickr: sgillies

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