2021 Volume 103 Issue 1 Pages 1-12
Although the matsutake mushroom is highly valued as a seasonal ingredient, its production has decreased markedly owing to the deterioration and dwindling of its habitat in Japanese red pine forests. We determined when matsutake mushrooms came to be regarded as a luxury food ingredient. From the second half of the 1950s through the 1960s, matsutake were in a sense seen as mushrooms for ordinary cooking by consumers. Cookbooks treated them as substitutes for other mushrooms or as an ingredient for thrifty cooking. They were also used in Western and Chinese cooking, and cookbooks showed many ways of cooking, slicing, and heating them. We investigated substitutes for matsutake in home cooking through recipes on the internet. Although documentation was limited, we found recipes with matsutake substitutes featuring cultivated king oyster mushrooms alone, or combined with matsutake-flavor soup (on the market from 1964). Further, using a mountainous village in Iwate Prefecture as a case study, we conducted interviews on the enjoyment and techniques of gathering matsutake mushrooms and improving their habitats, as well as finding subsequent opportunities for selling, cooking, gifting, and preserving the harvested mushrooms. Even elderly gatherers enthusiastically picked matsutake, and one of them worked on improving their habitat in red pine forests for gifting and eating matsutake with friends and family. At home, they enjoyed cooking matsutake in Japanese dishes, and they preserved matsutake by freezing and vacuum packing.
