fungus · The Trophy Room
Western Matsutake
The pine mushroom — the most valuable wild mushroom on the coast, and the one you smell before you see. The American matsutake hides half-buried under duff and pine needles, and finding a productive patch is the kind of secret people take to their graves. That spicy cinnamon-and-gym-sock smell is the whole identification.
Identifying
- firm white cap, often with brown fibrous scales or staining, cap edge rolled under when young
- a distinctive partial veil leaving a ring on a thick, dense, white stem
- gills white and crowded; the whole mushroom is heavy and solid
- the smell is the key — a unique spicy-sweet aroma, "Red Hots and dirty socks," unmistakable once learned
Facts
- prized in Japan, where top-grade buttons have sold for absurd money — the coastal harvest is a real fall economy
- caution: the toxic Amanita smithiana shares its habitat and rough size — matsutake has the smell and no volva; when unsure, don't
- hunt them "matsutake style" — look for the humps and cracks where they're pushing up under the duff, not for exposed caps
