Truffles do not always ripe
n evenly, this photo has sections cut from a preseason truffle which usefully demonstrates typical colours from left to right, for tissue that is;Â Under-ripe / Ripe / Over-ripe. Note the visible moisture, and dissappearance of veining on the over-ripe slices. (photographic grey card at left).
Harvested on June 3rd 2012, due to the visible damage/rot section this truffle clearly showed extremes of over and under ripeness, making it useful for some visual reference photos.
One of the probable causes of the damage is also visible (barely) in the upper right, a mushroom worm, within an eaten area. It is likely that this caused the track of overripe/rotted tissue, with the lobe to the left being triggered into premature ripening. The hard, light coloured section to the left is more typical of an immature truffle at this time of year.
This truffle had a less than pleasant aroma from the badly damaged areas. The areas of correct colou
r and firmness had the right aroma’s but were not salvagable even for my own use as edible truffle due to odour contaminations from the damaged tissue.
The dissection of it proved useful for these photos regarding ripeness of truffle tissue for the website. It’s a shame thats all the 135 grams of truffle was good for.
Further photo’s SSC_0939 / SSC_0940 (before and after a cut), SSC_0941 -shows uneven ripening
I’ll add a photo of a top quality truffle later this season.