Description of matsutake mushrooms
Matsutake mushroom is considered a delicacy. In Japan, it is valued on a par with truffles; it is one of the most expensive species. The price of one copy can be up to $ 100.
Description of Matsutake mushrooms
Description of mushrooms
Matsutake mushrooms are edible, otherwise they are also called "shod ryadovka". Outwardly, they look like mushrooms, but their cap is wider, and the leg is more stocky.
This type of mushroom is characterized by:
- dry scaly cap, rounded slightly convex in shape, wrapped around the edges, light brown in color;
- irregular light plates that change their color from light white to cream as the fungus grows;
- small dark spores;
- a long, medium-thick leg, widening or tapering towards the base, brown, grows up to 20 cm and is almost completely submerged in the ground;
- firm, but not firm, milky white flesh with an exceptional aroma, including fruity notes and aromas of cinnamon and pine.
These rows grow in symbiosis with pine trees in areas characterized by sandy loam soils. Because of this, the Japanese called them "matsutake", which translates as "pine mushroom".
Properties of mushrooms
Matsutake mushroom has medicinal properties. It contains useful trace elements that are essential for the human body. Thanks to this composition, the ryadovka is able to favorably affect the blood. It helps fight blood diseases and prevents cancer problems. Its properties appear only in the first two days after being removed from the ground. During this time, the product must be consumed raw or dried. This will help cure leukemia.
Young, freshly harvested mushrooms for treatment are the most valuable and expensive.
Mature, full-grown matsutake is also used for medicinal purposes, but its beneficial properties are greatly reduced. They are used to prevent cancer and remove carcinogens from the body.
Their fruiting bodies are ground into powder and medicines are made to fight viral infections. In Japan, when the flu appears, capsules with such a powder are prescribed. Also, tinctures are made from mushrooms, which are recommended to drink to lower blood pressure, treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and normalize blood sugar levels.
Spread of Matsutake mushrooms
The Japanese mushroom grows not only in Japan, but also in other parts of the world. Due to the massive collection of shod shoes, its number in the Japanese islands has significantly decreased, so local businessmen import this product from Europe, North America, Russia and other Asian countries. Matsutake is grown in Sweden, Finland, China and Korea. On the territory of Russia, pine mushrooms are found in Sakhalin, Siberia and some areas with light sandy soils and pine forests.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
To be more precise, on the territory of Russia, matsutake can be found only in the eastern part of the country: the Urals, Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk region), the Far East (Khabarovsk Territory, Amur Region) and Primorye (the species is included in the Red Book). The European part of Russia is deprived of the "attention" of this mushroom. Here it can be found occasionally in the central and southern regions. Sometimes they come across mushroom pickers in Belarus and Ukraine.
This species grows massively in the northwestern forests of the United States. The Americans have built a lucrative business exporting it to Japan. About 20 years ago, they began to actively collect Japanese mushrooms and sell them abroad at a cost of $ 200 per kg. Soon the Canadians began to engage in the same activity. In the 1980s, the Chinese collected matsutake in Shanghai and exported it to Japan or Western Europe, mistaking them for common toadstools, not worthy of attention.
Harvest time
It's important to harvest on time
Matsutake are very demanding on growing conditions. During the day, the temperature should not rise above + 26 ℃, and at night it should not drop below + 15 ℃; the amount of precipitation during the month must be more than 100 mm. To get a rich and high-quality harvest of these mushrooms, the soil must be, no matter how strange it may seem, infertile, but well-drained, which means it must be dry. An increase in the amount of nutrients in the soil leads to poor growth of fungi. For your information. Near the mushrooms, the soil turns white, i.e. almost all nutrients are removed from it. For more than 10 years, the colony in one place "does not sit up".
If the right conditions are maintained, the crop will ripen by September or October. The collection takes about 20 days. If matsutake is not collected in time, they will start to deteriorate and lose their useful properties, which will significantly reduce their value and cost.
The value of matsutake mushrooms
The value of pine mushrooms varies depending on their appearance and age. Their characteristics are influenced by the terrain where they grow. So, in Primorye, ryadovki grow large, dense, with an exquisite smell, and therefore are most valued. Also, the high cost is inherent in Japanese and Canadian mushrooms. But matsutake, collected in China and Korea, are much cheaper, because they are inferior in taste and have a less intense aroma.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Thanks to the development of the science of genetics, the Swedish scientists Bergius and Danell carried out very specific studies at the DNA level in 1999, which made it possible to establish that the Swedish Tricholoma nauseosum and the Japanese Tricholoma matsutake are one species. It turns out that evolutionarily it turned out that the range of the matsutake species was simply torn apart in space. It was this discovery that served as a launching pad for the start of mass export of rowers from Sweden and Finland to Japan on a permanent basis.
The price for young mushrooms is set higher than for mature ones. This is due to the fact that young unblown rowers have a richer taste. Gourmets divide all matsutake into categories corresponding to their qualities and properties. The most elite are considered to be immature seaside mushrooms grown in Russia.
The use of mushrooms in cooking
Matsutake have a delicate taste, surprisingly harmoniously combining the aroma of pines and pears. Due to these qualities, they are widely used in cooking, preparing various delicacies. A transparent soup is prepared from them, hats are fried on charcoal, grilled, stewed, baked, dried and marinated, and some gourmets even eat raw, cut into thin slices. Basically, they are served not as separate dishes, but as an addition to side dishes.
Before preparing mushrooms, it is important to prepare them properly. And for this you need:
- leave the top skin of the cap, otherwise all the exquisite aroma will disappear;
- just rinse the mushrooms under running water or wipe with a damp cloth;
- it is advisable not to injure the leg: it is better to cut off no more than a few millimeters of its lower part.
Contraindications for the use of mushrooms
A contraindication to their use is the individual intolerance of the individual components that make up the composition. Also, you should not use a shod ryadovka that has been stored in the refrigerator for a long time. After that, she not only loses all useful properties, but can also cause poisoning in people with gastrointestinal problems.
Conclusion
Matsutake are very rare and expensive mushrooms that are used to prepare delicious dishes. They are demanding on environmental conditions, therefore they grow only in certain areas of the Earth, where there are sandy loam soils and pine groves or coniferous forests. They have not only an exclusive taste and aroma, but also medicinal properties, and hence the potential for the pharmaceutical industry.
