The estimable Platina insists that, in the first place, truffles should be washed in wine, and afterwards cooked under the ashes; and that they be served hot, and sprinkled over with salt and pepper.[XXIII_106]
This is the composition of a syrup of truffles, taken from the old Arabian medicine. We believe it to be very little known, and should not be surprised if it were, some day, to obtain the renown it seems to deserve. It was composed of truffles, balm, and holy thistle, boiled in water with sugar; and to each pound of the decoction was added one scruple of water distilled from honey, and half an ounce of some spirit—say, for example, spirits of wine—to each pound of liquor. The whole was aromatised with musk and a little rose-water. Two ounces of this syrup were administered hot,[XXIII_107] in cases of weakness.
Salmasius, who knew much of the Greek tongue, and very little of cookery, avers that the ancients knew two different kinds of truffles. One species was similar to ours, and the other a variety from Africa, already mentioned, white outside and the size of a quince.[XXIII_108] Leo the African, says that the Arabs cook these truffles in milk, and that they think them exquisite. Thereupon Salmasius exclaims against the insipidity of this dish, or the ignorance of Leo the African; and immediately points out, with an air of triumph, the celebrated Avicenna, who informs us that, after the truffles were peeled and cut in small pieces, they were cooked in water and salt, and then dished up with oil, benzoin, and spices. Salmasius will have it that Avicenna’s truffles had no other flavour than that given by the sauce, and he has no forgiveness for those poor Arabs who dared to dress them otherwise.
If this clever Hellenist had studied this savoury tubercle with as much care as he bestowed on the writers of the history of Augustus, he would have learned that the peculiar perfume which distinguishes it retains, in the midst of seasoning the most laboriously prepared, the same power it possesses when eaten by itself, and without any dressing.
Apicius had less of literature than Salmasius, but he was most assuredly gifted in a very superior degree with that mens divinior which makes great cooks and illustrious poets. This assimilation has nothing surprising in it, if we only remember that genius is nothing else than the faculty of producing; and who ever bequeathed to posterity productions more exquisite than those of Archestrates and Apicius?
Let us hear from this latter how to preserve truffles. You must be careful not to put them in contact with water; that is to say, that they ought to be kept very dry. They are placed separately in vessels, and covered with iron filings, or saw-dust. Close each vessel hermetically with plaster, and keep them in a dark and cool place.[XXIII_109]
The truffle is a very remarkable vegetable, which, without stems, roots, or fibres, grows of itself, isolated in the bosom of the earth, absorbing the nutritive juice. Its form is round, more or less regular; its surface is smooth or tuberculous; the colour dark-brown outside, brown, grey, or white within. Its tissue is formed of articulated filaments, between which are spheric vesicles, and in the interior are placed reproductive bodies, small brown spheres, called truffinelles. Truffles vegetate to the depth of five or six inches in the high sandy soils of the south-west of France, of Piedmont, &c., &c. Their mode of vegetation and reproduction is not known. Dogs are trained to find them, as well as pigs, and boars also, who are very fond of them. They are eaten cooked under the ashes, or in wine and water. They are preserved, when prepared in oil, which is soon impregnated with their odour.
Poultry is stuffed with them, also geese’s livers, pies, and cooked pork, besides numerous ragoûts. They possess, it is said, exciting virtues.