I personally wouldn't pay ridiculous prices for them, but as I live in the SF bay area I keep an eye out when they're in season and you can usually buy them for $20 a pound or so (and a pound is a lot of mushrooms). trim off the dirt, slice them, sautee them in a little fat with onion and garlic, add in some soy sauce, white wine, maybe chicken stock, maybe strips of chicken.
The main thing with matsutake is, like truffles, they have not really been domesticated. You have to forage for them.
There's all sorts of interesting things about mushrooms- the mycelium ends up connecting multiple trees together, and they act in symbiotic relationship to each other, in terms of exchanging minerals and nutrients (which is apparently why they haven't been domesticated yet).
This video is pretty interesting about Japanese mushrooms in general, and has an segment on matsutake mushrooms in particular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZujODgOqCI
(the Japanlology series is pretty entertaining / informative too -- it has lots of episodes and there's always a touching / memorable story at the end of each)
Japanese preparations are with rice or like a consommé. You can also fusion it with Lemongrass etc…but because they are seasonal and expensive, why ruin the pure flavour. They are also known as pine mushrooms..so the aroma is kinda piney/forest floor and cinnamon chai’ish. Mushroom cravings now!
In fact, if you don't care for the social prestige, common and good things are better because they're more easily accessible at better prices.
It isn't true for everyone, but I enjoy good foods I rarely consume more.
Take steak (common) and lobster (rarer)
Both are good, and I would rather live in a world without lobster than one without steak. That said, if you asked me what which I wanted for my next meal, I would pick lobster.
This doesn't mean you can't eat good food with variety on a thrifty budget. But even someone doing so might be especially excited to have something expensive that they don't normally have access to.
In October/November in the pacific northwest you can buy them at asian markets (though they're pricy) or find them in dishes at many japanese restaurants.
"Thousands of truffle-producing trees were planted, and production reached peaks of hundreds of tonnes at the end of the 19th century. In 1890, 75,000 hectares (190,000 acres) of truffle-producing trees had been planted."
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F
Some 10+ years ago, I scrimped and saved and bought white truffles for something like 400 quid in London. I had only omelettes and pasta and risottos for days and I stretched it and stretched it. I didn’t want to try anything else fancy..just a blank slate to imbibe the aroma of white truffles. A Hungarian Tokay and a very pungent raw Camembert. I could only afford McDonalds soft serve and fries for a week after that but it was totally worth it.
As I am typing this..and I am obviously imagining it..I can almost smell it ..it’s like the aroma of those meals are still clinging to the inside of my nasal passages.
I used to work Michelin kitchens…and classical recipes were always revered..but there was always someone who’d want roast chicken with black truffle slices under the skin. A tame version of the original..roast chicken inside a pig’s bladder. I have had many humiliating experiences including shaving a piglet with a razor in a bathtub(not to mention Glorious 12th shenanigans which were probably not legal..who knows) , but never have done the bladder balloon bag for truffle chicken.
Others can be simple and not fancy at all. Or a consommé with black truffles in it and a puff pastry dome so a plume of truffle steam hits them when they break the dome. These are text book recipes..old fashioned escoffier stuff, but there will always be someone who will wax lyrical about them.. I wonder which generation will lose the nostalgia of it all.
When I came back to the states, I had a few usual suspects under my sleeve that I repeat again and again. The most popular one was seven hour gigot d’Agneau with robuchon pomme purée and a cream of garlic soup. The Americans refused the lamb because it was falling off the bone(that was the point) and suspicious because it was ‘still pink’. And insisted on truffles in the pomme purée even though none was available and I only had fake truffle oil at hand. That was the last meal I cooked and I stopped cooking meat all together. There is something about America that can’t get past beyond a well made burger. It’s very insulting to my craft. It makes me very sad because I love to feed people..but I also realized that I love feeding people only because they loved me.
Sorry..went off on a tangent and then down the mushroom path.
Fwiw re the OP, I think I know that Sonoma farm…I remember when they planted and many were skeptical. they planted in a hazelnut orchard. It’s the most suitable one for California. It’s not worth planting new growth oaks as they are protected under state law and can’t be felled if need arises. Further..oak disease is ravaging California..sudden oak death is clearing off old growth oaks. It’s all very depressing. But I am very happy that there are truffles in our own CA backyard. They use dogs now to dig them up instead of pigs, I heard…because pigs will gobble up everything. Thousands of dollars worth of truffles in one snort.
Seems like it’s around 10,000 euros/lb now. When I bought it..it was probably 2200-2500 euros per pound. That was almost a decade ago!
To me, after the Italian white truffle experience, black truffles are not worth it anymore. I just want to preserve that one special memory(of many meals) untainted!