Drying and storage of magic truffles

By Dennis Blanc,
Last update: January 30, 2019

Fresh magic truffles have the disadvantage of having a relatively short shelf life

Outside of the packaging, they will unfortunately only stay good for a few days.
A solution is to dry them.

A dry truffle contains exactly the same amount of active substance than in its fresh
form. But a dry truffle can be kept for months.

Fresh truffles consist, in a big part, of water. By letting this water evaporate out of
the truffles, they will dry out. The trick is to make sure that there is no humid air
around the truffle, because in this phase the truffles are very susceptible to mould
or rot.

If you follow the instructions below, little can go wrong.

How to dry truffles

Place the truffles on a newspaper with at least 1 cm between each other.

This is to make sure that the humid air between the truffles can evaporate more easily.

If possible, large truffles should be divided into smaller chunks, so that they dry faster,
together with the rest. Also, this will make it easier to eat them, because dried truffles
are very hard.

In order to prevent stagnant air around the truffle, it is important to make sure there is
good air circulation. It doesn't have to be much; a draughty space is sufficient. So, best
would be to place the newspaper in the middle of the room, instead of in a corner, where
the air circulation is less.

If you are not sure this is enough, a fan can be a solution. Point the fan on the truffle and
you will make sure there will be enough air circulation.

After several days, the truffles will shrink and harden. Once the truffles are also hard on
the inside, they will be done drying and they can be stored.

Fast and safe drying using a heat mat

It is even safer to dry the truffles with the aid of a heat mat, because this will speed up
the process and minimize the risk of mould.

Follow the instructions above to dry them. But place the truffles on the heat mat, instead
of a newspaper.

Click here, if you want to order a heat mat.

Temperature during drying

A normal house temperature between 15 or 40 degrees is desired. Even though truffles
will dry more quickly at a higher temperature, it is not necessary to heat up the room more.

Humidity during drying

The lower the humidity in your drying room, the faster the truffle will dry. A humidity
level higher than 75% in the drying room is not desired.

Storage

Put the dried truffles in an airtight container with lockable lid and store in a dark place,
for example in a cupboard or a drawer.