Why are truffles considered so luxurious

A.� Fresh truffles have always been synonymous with luxury, transforming even the simplest foods.

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The black truffle's great culinary gift is that it impregnates food with a deep, farmyard savour. A small amount of truffle can go a very long way, and chefs love them because of the way they change the simplest recipes.

Store a truffle in a kilner jar with some eggs. After a few days, the perfume will have penetrated their shells and you will be able to make aromatic scrambled eggs or an omlette. Bury a truffle in risotto rice for the same effect.

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Other natural partners to truffles are pasta or potatoes.� Truffles can also enhance the flavour of meat. Put a few slices under the skin of a chicken before cooking, and the perfume will scent the meat.

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Q.� Where are they found

A.� Tuber melanosporum - black truffle in English, truffle noir in French - is capricious. This mysterious fungus grows from spores which attach themselves to the roots of oak trees and can appear or disappear from one season to the next. Even the chenes truffiers, the trees impregnated with spores, can only claim a 30 per cent success rate.

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The truffle season runs between the first and last of the frosts, usually mid-November to the end of February. It's claimed some of the world's greatest truffles are found in Pronvence in France.

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Prices fluctutate but are always highest just before Christmas, although truffles are at their best between January and February. Last winter, they cost more than the previous year - between FF2,00 and FF4,000 a kilo - as the crop was smaller than usual, perhaps because of the lack or rain during the previous summer.

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Q.� Can you buy preserved truffles

A.� Top French chefs avoid using preserved truffles sold in jars because they say they have been pasteurised, and therefore, cooked. If you buy fresh truffles, use them within a week, or freeze them, wrapped tightly in aluminium foil. When you need them, grate straight from the freezer, without thawing.

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By Katharine MacColl