Matsutake or pine mushrooms are among the more well-known edible mushrooms. The name usually includes the fact that some prime matsutake mushrooms have sold for over $100 for a single mushroom in Japan. More realistically, matsutake mushrooms aren't going to fetch more than a few dollars a pound for commercial pickers, but it's still an alluring bit of matsutake lore.
Luckily for foragers, matsutake can be found in the wild with a bit of practice! This article will review how to identify matsutake, discuss their range and habitats, examine some look-alikes, and learn how to harvest, cook, and preserve them!
Description
The western matsutake, Tricholoma murrillianum, is a medium-sized, gilled mushroom with a convex to flat white cap with cinnamon brown streaking. When young, the gills are covered by a partial veil that remains as a thick ring on the stem. The gills are white and usually lightly attached to the stem with a notch. The stem is dense and tapers towards the base. It is also white with cinnamon-brown streaking. The base of the stem is usually covered in a light grey soil called spodosol or podzol. The odor is a distinctive, funky, spicy mushroom aroma. The spores are white.
Range & Habitats
Western matsutake have been documented from the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast, including southern British Columbia. They are mycorrhizal with various coniferous trees, including lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), Douglas fir (Pseudotstuga), hemlock (Tsuga), and true fir (Abies). On the West Coast portion of their range, they can also reportedly be associated with tanoak (Notholithocarpus) and madrone (Arbutus). Finding forests with sandy podosol soils can also help pinpoint matsutake.
In Colorado, Matsutake mushrooms are most commonly found in stands of pure lodgepole pine. They can also sometimes be associated with subalpine fir, Abies lasiocarpa, often in mixed conifer forests where lodgepole pine is also present. They generally begin fruiting after the summer temperatures have peaked and started cooling. Often, the only way to find matsutake is to look for mushrumps, small bumps, or cracks in the forest floor caused by fruiting mushrooms.
Other matsutake species can be found in North America, including T. magnivelare, which grows east of the Rocky Mountains, and T. mesoamericanum, which is found in Mexico.
Potential Look-alikes
The information in the description above should be enough to identify matsutake correctly. However, look-alike information is regularly requested, so here are some possible species that could be confused with matsutake. This list is not comprehensive and may not be relevant to your region. Remember only to eat wild foods once you're 100% confident in your identification and comfortable with trying something new.
Other Tricholoma species, such as T. focale or T. caligatum group. Color and smell are the most important differentiators. Most of these are non-toxic, and some are edible.
Imperial cat, Catathalasma imperiale. It has decurrent gills and grows in different habitats. Also edible.
Some toxic white amanita species could be confused with matsutake. Smith's amanita, Amanita smithiana, would be the most likely because they share habitats and can resemble matsutake. This species hasn't been documented in Colorado but can be found in the Pacific Northwest.
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Harvesting & Eating Matsutake
Before harvesting matsutake mushrooms, you have to find them! As mentioned, they rarely fully emerge from under the forest duff, so you have to look for mushrumps most of the time. I've found matsutake just under the surface needles and under found inches of pine cone debris. This is a mushroom you'll want to slow down for! Look for humps, bumps, cracks, or other anomalies in the forest floor. Sometimes, your eye will notice just the slightest change in the pine needles or forest soil level, which can often lead to finishing matsutake! Once you find a likely mushrump, it's as simple as gently uncovering the potential mushroom and wiggling it loose to see if it's a matsutake. You will also come across some of the above look-alikes, Russula, and even tiny mushrooms that make surprisingly large bumps.
Once you find a matsutake, you want to brush and cut away as much debris and dirt as possible. If you let it sit on the mushrooms, it settles in and becomes a pain to remove later. I often go through a second cleaning back in the kitchen, where I take my time removing any remaining sand and debris under running water. Despite the commonly spread myth about mushrooms and water, it doesn't affect the mushrooms. They get rained on in the woods pretty often.
There are many great ways to cook matsutake, but the best recipes preserve their unique, delicate flavors. Often, these are steamed dishes or simple soups. Because these are such prized edible mushrooms, many recipes can be found online. Matsutake can also be preseved by drying, freezing, pickling, and I've even had great success with some infusions. My favorite was a matsutake shoyu. Simply slice them thin and place in a jar with shoyu.
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