Random Food Questions Thread - Page 365

What did it say on the menu? 96 hours slow-cooked surprise?

Are matsutake mushrooms worth $31.95/lb?

They're definitely not Japanese at that price, if they're Canadian then yeah $32/lb is still ok. You get like 2 mushrooms for $30 here, even the Canadian ones. Japanese ones go up to like $100 a piece or more.

These I think are from Michigan.

They're still probably better than the Chinese ones that flood the market.

I think the price is decent. Do they look good?

Edit: Ah, didn't refresh the page in one hour.

They are "petite", and the distributor says they are good quality. I cannot see them, however, as they are currently in Washington state. I might go ahead and try them out. I've never cooked with them before.

My family just used to grill them with a bit of oil and salt. Delicious

You mean they didn't poach them and use the trimmings to make a sabayon? Pish posh!

insert "look up" joke here.

I need to bake an oil-based apple cake next week. I would normally bake with olive oil, but I have doubts about a slight olive taste and applies. Does it work to use a nut oil? I always have walnut oil and hazelnut oil around. Is there a better choice?

I know it is blasphemy, at least kwilk told me it was, but I don't love matsutake like I do other mushrooms. I find the texture to be kind of unappealing and the aroma odd. I have used them in chawanmushi, and I like them that way. Sauteed or grilled they aren't so much bad as they are meh.

I don't think olive would work badly, but I do see the concern. The only thing with nut oils is that they both tend to be rancid a lot of the time, and don't do that well with high temperatures. Otherwise, walnut would be a great flavor. I just couldn't make any promises to how well it might work.

yup. except i'd n ever use the word "meh". i'm afraid i don't get the magic, though i'm completely willing to believe that it's because i haven't had the prepared just the right way. i'd probably go with a neutral oil. nut oils do tend to go rancid very quickly but they also tend to have REALLY strong flavors even when they're good. While a little hazelnut flavor sounds great in an applecake, this could very quickly turn into a hazelnut cake with apples. not sure how much i'd love that.

Thanks for the advice, experts. Perhaps I will use a neutral oil with a little bit of nut oil for flavor or maybe olive oil with some nut oil to overpower any residual olive taste. Olive oil seems to produce the best texture.

The one time I've had them they were shaved thinly and cooked atop a piece of fish. So, this preparation avoided any unpleasant texture. Unfortunately, sliced this way, I can't say I got much out of them in terms of flavor or aroma, but it's possible I just didn't know what to look for.