Choiromyces venosusChoiromyces meandriformis

It’s a disputed question. In Germany, Sweden and Hungary the mushroom is officially edible; in Spain it’s banned as poisonous. It can affect different people differently — from no problems at all to severe gastrointestinal poisoning. If you decide to try it: only young white specimens identified with certainty (ideally confirmed by a mycologist), always boiled for 20–30 min. The first time, eat a small portion and wait 24 hours — this checks your personal tolerance of this species, not whether a mushroom is edible. Never use a small portion to test an unidentified mushroom.

The true white truffle (Tuber magnatum) and the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) belong to a different genus (Tuber, not Choiromyces). Their aroma is finer and more complex, and they never come up to the surface. Choiromyces is a simpler “peasant” truffle that partly pokes out of the ground, and its aroma is coarser.

The Carpathian foothills, Zakarpattia, the Carpathians, less often the Western Forest-Steppe. In oak and oak-pine forests on light soils. You have to search underground at a depth of 5–15 cm. People hunt for it with trained dogs or by watching for small bumps on the soil.

August to October, peaking in September. Unlike above-ground mushrooms, hypogeous truffles ripen more slowly and keep longer in the soil. They can even be found during the quiet autumn stretch after the first frosts.

The deer truffle (Elaphomyces) is also underground, but darker, shaped like smaller nuts, with a hard black-brown rind. It’s inedible, but not poisonous either. Choiromyces is larger and paler, with a characteristic marbled interior when cut.

Mostly oak (Quercus), also pine, spruce and Douglas fir. It’s most likely in oak woods and mixed forests with conifers. It does turn up in purely coniferous or purely broadleaf forests, but more rarely.

Perhaps different European populations have a chemically different mix of toxins. Or it comes down to preparation — in Germany the mushroom is boiled, while in Italy it was traditionally eaten raw in salads. It’s safer to go by the southern European warnings: the mushroom can cause a severe upset stomach.

Given how rare it is, how hard it is to find, its disputed edibility and its lack of real culinary value — for most foragers there’s no practical point. This species is of interest to mycologists and collectors of rare finds, not to the kitchen.