Matsutake, anyone?

Isn't he pitching for the Red Sox now?

Puester said:

Before cooking it smelled to me a bit like urine and spearmint.
Strange. (Can I tell him that?)

Well, one of its Latin names is Tricholoma nauseosum, so a mycologist
won't likely be surprised.

Victor

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Sliced thinly and sauteed in a bit of butter, it tasted...like chicken.
Before cooking it smelled to me a bit like urine and spearmint.
Strange. (Can I tell him that?)

Matsutake are generally not cooked the way you did them. THey are more
often sliced thinly and used in soups or stews. The reason is that the
flavor components of matsutake are water soluble. THis is different from
almost every other mushroom where the flavor components are fat soluble.

--
Peter Aitken

Peter A <[email hidden]> dropped this
news:[email hidden]: in
rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

In article <zLHFi.529206$p47.231048@bgtnsc04-

news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Sliced thinly and sauteed in a bit of butter, it tasted...like

chicken.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Before cooking it smelled to me a bit like urine and spearmint.
Strange. (Can I tell him that?)

Matsutake are generally not cooked the way you did them. THey are more
often sliced thinly and used in soups or stews. The reason is that the
flavor components of matsutake are water soluble. THis is different

from

Quoted message said:

almost every other mushroom where the flavor components are fat

soluble.

I've never had them but I am now curious about them. I did a quickie
Google on them and came up with someting a bit interesting on the 3rd
hit. These mushrooms must be pretty awesome in taste because the few
recipes I found have very few ingredients and the mushrooms seem to be
the _star_ of the recipe.

http://www.williamrubel.com/mushrooms/matsutake-recipe/
There are pics at the website.

This recipe for matsutake soup from the Kunming Hotel, Kunming, China,
demonstrates how one can, as a cook, step back and let the mushroom speak
for itself. There are mushrooms that need us, the cook, to exert
ourselves on their behalf — but many of the greatest mushrooms are best
handled the least and this is certainly true of the great pine mushroom
(Tricholoma matsuke). In Yunnan the mushroom is called sunron. It
combines a rare package of a sweet odor, delicate taste, crisp texture,
and beautiful shape. No oil is used in this soup — and it is the opinion
of the Kunming Hotel chefs that oil must never be used with matsutake
because, in their opinion, oil smothers the pine flavor of the mushroom.
Thus, at the heart of this recipe is an approach to the matstuake that
says – let the mushroom reveal itself through its own breath. The stock
for this soup is lightly salted water in which the mushroom is boiled and
at the last minute joined by cilantro.

A related matsutake—Tricholoma magnivelare — grows in North America. Its
cap is browner than Tricholma matsutake, but it is also a fine mushroom.

Ingredients: Water, salt, matsutake mushrooms, thinly sliced, and
cilantro, coarsely shopped. For each portion of soup include a moderate
handful of mushrooms and a small handful of cilantro.

Instructions Make a stock of lightly salted water by adding a little
salt, tasting, adding a little more, tasting until you are pleased with
the taste. Then add a little white pepper.

Add thinly sliced matsutake and bring to a rolling boil. Cook for 1 to 2
minutes at a full boil. Add rough chopped cilantro. As soon as the
cilantro wilts remove from the heat and serve.

Michael

--
Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their
food, and tyrannize their teachers.
- Socrates

to email: dog3 at charter dot net

There was an article on Matsutake pickers and the market for Matsutake
in a recent New Yorker..

T.

tbs48 wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:33:35 -0700:

t> There was an article on Matsutake pickers and the market for
t> Matsutake in a recent New Yorker..

Any idea what sort of store would stock them? Would one of the
Chinese stores that seem to stock quite a range of Japanese
products be likely to have them? I know people might say a
Japanese store but the only one around here, if quite good, has
inconvenient parking.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Sep 12, 9:56 am, "James Silverton" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

tbs48 wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:33:35 -0700:

t> There was an article on Matsutake pickers and the market for
t> Matsutake in a recent New Yorker..

Any idea what sort of store would stock them? Would one of the
Chinese stores that seem to stock quite a range of Japanese
products be likely to have them? I know people might say a
Japanese store but the only one around here, if quite good, has
inconvenient parking.

I wouldn't know, but the market seems to be oriented to flying it back
to Japan as fast as possible. The guy who got $45 a bucket for it and
a free meal could have done better since the Japanese will pay
atrociously high prices for them.

Read the article .. I read it last month

T.

tbs48 said:

On Sep 12, 9:56 am, "James Silverton" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

tbs48 wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:33:35 -0700:

t> There was an article on Matsutake pickers and the market for
t> Matsutake in a recent New Yorker..

Any idea what sort of store would stock them? Would one of the
Chinese stores that seem to stock quite a range of Japanese
products be likely to have them? I know people might say a
Japanese store but the only one around here, if quite good, has
inconvenient parking.

I wouldn't know, but the market seems to be oriented to flying it back
to Japan as fast as possible. The guy who got $45 a bucket for it and
a free meal could have done better since the Japanese will pay
atrociously high prices for them.

Read the article .. I read it last month

T.

the august 20, 2007 issue. good article. there's an abstract here:

<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_bilger>

your pal,
blake

Michael 'Dog3 said:

I've never had them but I am now curious about them. I did a quickie
Google on them and came up with someting a bit interesting on the 3rd
hit. These mushrooms must be pretty awesome in taste because the few
recipes I found have very few ingredients and the mushrooms seem to be
the _star_ of the recipe.

http://www.williamrubel.com/mushrooms/matsutake-recipe/
There are pics at the website.

Thanks for the link!

Becca