Pigs vs. dogs?
The scents produced by truffles to encourage mycophagy sometimes attract animals that are larger than squirrels. Some truffles, including the gourmet edibles Italian perigord, French white, and Oregon white, produce a scent that mimics a male pig sex hormone. It is for this reason that female pigs have been used historically in Europe to help find truffles. More recently, dogs have become the preferred truffle hunting companion for several reasons, among them 1) Dogs can be trained to find, but not eat the truffles, and 2) Dogs are much easier to get into the back seat of a car. Back to top… Truffle maturity and the market In the United States, we have not advanced to the point of using trained animals to help find truffles. This is unfortunate not only from an efficiency standpoint, but also a market reputation standpoint. The reason for this is that truffles only develop the aroma that attracts animals and excites chefs when they are fully mature. Thus, pigs and dogs will only indi
