Terfezia is one of the most exciting types of truffle, not only because its rarity that the best years the full crop is only some hundred kilograms in certain areas in Hungary, but due to its sweetness and unique taste.
The antique delicate Terfezia, can be found in the area antique province of Rome, Pannonia, in current Hungary. The former Moroccan and Near East regions that one bore sweet Terfezia have since destroyed due to logging and desertification. Terfezia today is almost exclusively found in special endowments in Carpathian Basin.
The crop season of Terfezia lasts only from end of August to October. When the Terfezia is young it is hard as cheese and white yellow in colour, while in its later stage it is soft and reddish-brown in colour.
In the gastronomic sense the Hungarian Terfezia speciality is sweetness. While it carries most truffle s strong aroma, Terfezia may be 10 times sweeter than sugar. Therefore in cuisine it is used primarily to flavour dessert which is very unique among the ways in which truffle are used. One most handle of Terfezia truffle in a very special and careful manner not just because of its sweetness and unique taste, but also because it is much softer than other average truffle and thus requires particular attention.
You can find tubers of Terfezia only in wild forests. The mycologists collect the tubers with specially trained dogs. Terfezia grows right underneath the surface of the ground, but many times it breaks through the grounds surface. Unlike the most truffles, Terfezia in Hungary are found only with trained dogs. The advantage of using trained dogs instead of pigs to find these truffles is that dogs are not inclined to eat, chow, touch, or even taste Terfezia truffle, they simply signal to the owner that Terfezia is present in certain area. Digging out the actual truffle is up to the master. Thus animals never touch this product which guarantees that product is clean and pure from the time it is found until it reaches your dining table.