Truffle hound : on the trail of the world's most seductive scent, with dreamers, schemers, and some extraordinary dogs / Rowan Jacobsen.

Includes index.

Down the rabbit hole -- Black magic apple of love -- The Alba connection -- Remembrance of truffles past -- Hocus pocus -- Big truffle -- Tartufi Town -- Moon in crescendo -- Black autumn -- Mr. Big -- Family -- The Saint Ladislaus Order of Truffle Knights -- The inside of the inside -- El Milagro -- Winter people -- Carolina gold -- The mysteries of Oregon -- New tricks -- Bonus track: The legend of Gustave -- Recipes.

Guaranteed to spark America's next great culinary passion, a James Beard Award-winning author explores the secretive and seductive world of truffles, the elusive food that has captured hearts, imaginations and palates worldwide.

Truffles attract dreamers, schemers, and sensualists. People spend years training dogs to find them underground. They plant forests of oaks and wait a decade for truffles to appear. They pay $3,000 a pound to possess them. They turn into quivering puddles in their presence. Jacobsen takes us into a world of secretive hunts, misty woods, black-market deals, obsessive chefs, quixotic scientists, and muddy dogs to show us that there's more to truffles than we ever imagined. -- adapted from jacket.