About 1780 truffles were very rare in Paris, and they were to be had only in small quantities at the Hotel des Americans, and at the Hotel de Province.  A dindon truffee was a luxury only seen at the tables of great nobles and of kept women.

We owe their abundance to dealers in comestibles, the number of whom has greatly increased, and who, seeing that their merchandise was popular, had it sought for throughout the kingdom.  Sending for it by either the mail or by couriers, they made its search general.  As truffles cannot be planted, careful search alone can obtain it.

At the time I write (1825) the glory of the truffle is at its apogee.  Let no one ever confess that he dined where truffles were not.  However good any entree may be, it seems bad unless enriched by truffles.  Who has not felt his mouth water when any allusion was made to truffles a la provincale.

A saute of truffles is a dish the honors of which the mistress of the house reserves to herself; in fine, the truffle is the diamond of the kitchen.

I sought the reason of this preference; it seemed to me that many other substances had an equal right to the honor, and I became satisfied that the cause was that the truffle was supposed to excite the genesiac sense.  This I am sure is the chief quality of its perfection, and the predilection and preference evinced for it, so powerful is our servitude to this tyrannical and capricious sense.

This discovery led me to seek to ascertain if the effect were real or imaginary.

[The Translator here has thought it best to omit a very broad dialogue, which Brillat-Savarin introduced into his book.]

..........  I made ulterior researches, collected my ideas, and
consulted the men who were most likely to know, with all of whom I
was intimate.  I united them into a tribunal, a senate, a
sanhedrim, an areopagus, and we gave the following decision to be
commented upon by the litterateures of the twenty-eighth century.

“The truffle is a positive aphrodisiac, and under certain circumstances makes women kinder, and men more amiable.”

In Piedmont white truffles are met with, which are very highly esteemed.  They have a slight flavor, not injurious to their perfection, because it gives no disagreable return.

The best truffles of France come from Perigord, and upper Provence.  About the month of January they have their highest perfume.

Those from Bugey also have a high flavor, but can not be preserved.

Those of Burgundy and Dauphiny are of inferior quality.  They are hard, and are deficient in farinacious matter.  Thus, there are many kinds of truffles.

To find truffles, dogs and hogs are used, that have been trained to the purpose.  There are men, however, with such practised eyes that by the inspection of the soil they can say whether it contains truffles or not, and what is their quality.