The secret of precious matsutake mushrooms

Truffles are considered the most expensive mushrooms in the world. They are sold at auctions and the price per kilogram often exceeds 3 thousand euros (298 thousand rubles). Well, in second place is a mushroom with the exotic name matsutake, which, however, also has a more prosaic name - shod row. Gourmets from Japan are ready to pay for a kilogram of this gift of the forest almost like truffles. What is the value of this unsightly-looking mushroom?

Matsutake grows in pine forests at the very base of the trees. They are found in Japan, the Far East, Siberia and Scandinavian countries. True, it is not at all easy to find these mushrooms, because there are very few of them in nature. Matsutake is considered a valuable mushroom everywhere. But the most expensive of them are collected in Japan, from the trunks of Japanese red pine.

Collecting these mushrooms is not easy. Only young matsutake are valued, the fruiting bodies of which are almost entirely in the ground. Only the cap remains on the surface, which is most often hidden under a layer of fallen pine needles. Therefore, mushrooms have to be literally dug out of the ground.

Residents of the Land of the Rising Sun highly value this mushroom for its aroma. Japanese traditional cuisine is traditionally not very rich in flavors. Therefore, matsutake is a real find for gourmets. It has a unique sweetish smell, which is given to the mushroom by the octyl or mushroom alcohol it contains.

The taste of the mushroom is also very unusual. Those who have tried matsutake find it difficult to describe it. It has notes of cinnamon and pine resin, and its body is similar to tender meat. It is believed that the special properties of the fungus are due to the fact that its mycelium forms a symbiosis with the root system of pine trees.

In Japan, matsutake is the king of autumn delicacies. Those who can afford it certainly strive to enjoy dishes made from these mushrooms before frost sets in. Those who didn’t have time will have to wait until next fall. When stored, matsutake quickly loses its unique properties, and artificially grown ones are not at all similar to those collected from the forest.

Mushrooms have been valued in Japan since ancient times. In one of the written sources of the 8th century, matsutake is listed among the gifts to the emperor. During the Edo period, which lasted from 1608 to 1868, mushrooms could be used to pay taxes instead of money. The happy owner of the land where this forest treasure grew could not sell it at his own discretion. This required permission from the authorities.

Matsutake mushrooms were once more common in the mountain forests of the Japanese islands than they are today. Their numbers have decreased due to the decline of red pine forests. This tree has served as fuel for traditional Japanese stoves and raw material for coal production for thousands of years. Therefore, the residents of the villages near which pine trees grew took care of them and planted new trees instead of the ones that were cut down.

This was the case until the 1970s, when Japan massively switched to petroleum products. Red pine began to be treated as ordinary trees of no value. Because of this, the forest area began to decline. Along with the pine trees, the matsutake began to disappear. Recently, the Japanese have come to their senses and again began to take care of relict forests, but it will take a long time before everything returns to normal.

In Japanese cuisine, matsutake mushrooms are cooked with rice or simply grilled. They are good on their own, so they do not require complex and sophisticated side dishes. The main thing when preparing dishes with this delicacy is speed. Japanese chefs say that fresh mushrooms lose their aroma and taste literally every minute.