If you re going to take a pig with you for some truffle hunting adventure in the forest, be very careful because the pig might devour the truffles even before you can take one. Some truffle hunters use a staff to make the pig back off once it finds a truffle. 3. Know that laws the govern truffle collection in your area You can t just head over to the forest and go on with your truffle collection adventure without knowing first if it is allowed in your area. Looking for truffles would require patience, since it is possible that all you may find would be clogs of dirt. Truffles are usually in a size of a walnut to a potato or apple. The world s biggest truffle was found in Italy on 2007, weighing 3.3 pounds. It was bought by billionaire Stanley Ho, when the truffle was put up for an auction in Macau. Get your truffles from your local gourmet shops or specialty stores. Of course, you don t need to go hunting for truffles in the forest. That s too time-consuming and laborious a task, unless it s your hobby. When shopping for truffles, smell them to check their odor intensity and freshness. Truffles that have been stocked for a long time gradually lose their strong smell. It is also more expensive than its better known brother because demand for it out numbers supply. White winter truffles are harvested between October and December. Other varieties of truffle mushroom include white summer truffle and black summer truffle. Harvested from January through April, white summer truffle is the least popular among the main types of truffles. Truffle enthusiasts regard Italian white truffles as the best truffle mushrooms next to the Perigord. However, this truffle variety costs more than its superior counterpart. Its delicately colored meat can be very brittle, as it easily breaks when you drop it on the floor. So chefs need to handle this mushroom carefully. This can be considered as the most widely-distributed truffle type because it grows bountifully in most areas in China. Because these are widely available, Chinese truffles are the ones that are being exported very often to the West areas and are considered an inferior-quality substitute for black truffles.