Japan (cultivated mushroom industry developed 20th century; wild matsutake from Japanese cedar forests)
Japan uses a wider variety of cultivated and foraged mushrooms in everyday cooking than perhaps any other cuisine — each variety with specific culinary applications, flavour characters, and seasonal associations. The major cultivated species include: shimeji (small clustered mushrooms in white and brown varieties — bunashimeji and hon-shimeji — with firm texture and mild, slightly bitter flavour); enoki (long thin white cultured mushrooms, delicate and crisp, used in hot pots and salads); maitake (hen-of-the-woods, intensely flavoured, with frilly layered caps — prized for tempura and simmered dishes); nameko (small, mucilaginous orange-capped mushrooms used in miso soup, with characteristic slimy texture); king oyster (eringi, thick-stemmed, mild, with excellent meat-like texture for grilling); shiitake (the dominant variety in Japanese cooking, used fresh and dried — dried shiitake producing the most potent glutamate-rich dashi). Matsutake (pine mushroom) stands alone as Japan's supreme luxury foraged mushroom — available only in autumn, increasingly rare, with an extraordinary spicy-pine aromatic that commands astronomical prices.
Ranges from mild and neutral (enoki) to intensely earthy-umami (shiitake, maitake) to transcendent spicy-pine (matsutake)
{"Shiitake: fresh for grilling and simmering; dried for dashi with the most potent glutamic acid concentration","Shimeji: cook until completely tender; never eat raw — mildly toxic when uncooked","Enoki: minimal heat; crisp texture is the point; add to hot pot at the very end","Maitake: excellent tempura mushroom; cooking releases its intense earthy-spicy aroma","Matsutake: minimal intervention; dobin mushi (teapot broth), suimono, or simply grilled with salt and lime"}
{"Dried shiitake soaking liquid is potent dashi — strain carefully and use as cooking stock","Maitake and shimeji release significant water when heated; cook in batches to prevent steaming","Matsutake dobin mushi: place one small piece in a teapot with dashi, mitsuba, and yuzu — steam gently","Mixed mushroom combination amplifies umami: the different glutamate concentrations blend synergistically"}
{"Washing mushrooms under running water — they absorb moisture; wipe clean with a damp cloth","Over-salting shiitake — they concentrate salt dramatically as they cook and release moisture","Using dried shiitake soaking liquid without straining — fine sediment in the liquid bitters the dashi","Overcooking enoki — they collapse into stringy mush; they need seconds of heat only"}
Tsuji Shizuo, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art