Cultivated and culinary
The mushrooms you buy or grow, where there is nothing to identify.
The rest of this site is about telling wild mushrooms apart, which is difficult and dangerous. This part is the opposite: species you pick up in a shop or grow from bought spawn. You know what each one is because someone cultivated it, so every entry can just tell you how it tastes, how it behaves in a pan, and how it is grown. Common and scientific name, culinary use, and the substrate, fruiting temperature and humidity each one wants.
Never eat a wild-foraged mushroom you identified from a website, this one included. Wild mushroom misidentification can be fatal, and no page can rule a specimen IN. This reference is about cultivated and shop-bought mushrooms only: species you buy, or grow from bought spawn, where there is nothing to identify. To identify anything wild, consult a qualified local expert holding the actual specimen, never a description on a screen.
Button and field
The composted supermarket mushroom. One species at three ages, and a commercial crop rather than a home one because of the composting and casing it needs.
Oyster
Fast, forgiving mushrooms grown on pasteurised straw or sawdust. The beginner's crop, and where almost everyone starts.
Beginner to grow
Pearl oyster
Pleurotus ostreatus
Mild, faintly anise or seafood-like, taking on whatever it is cooked with.
Fruits at 10-21°C (50-70°F) depending on strain
Beginner to grow
Pink oyster
Pleurotus djamor
Stronger and more savoury than the pearl oyster, with a bacon or ham note reported when crisped. The pink colour cooks out to tan.
Fruits at 18-30°C (64-86°F)
Beginner to grow
Golden oyster
Pleurotus citrinopileatus
Nutty and mild, with a hint of cashew; the bright yellow fades toward cream on cooking.
Fruits at 18-30°C (64-86°F)
Intermediate to grow
King oyster
Pleurotus eryngii
Little raw, but develops a rich umami savour once cooked. The thick white stem is the prize, not the small cap.
Fruits at 15-18°C (59-64°F), triggered by a cold shock
Gourmet wood-lovers
Grown on a hardwood log or a sterilised sawdust block. Slower and fussier than oysters, and the heart of the gourmet trade.
Beginner to grow
Lion's mane
Hericium erinaceus
Sweet and mild, widely compared to crab or lobster.
Fruits at 16-24°C (60-75°F)
Intermediate to grow
Shiitake
Lentinula edodes
Deeply savoury and smoky, one of the richest umami mushrooms; dried shiitake are more intense again and count as a different ingredient from fresh.
Fruits at 10-21°C (50-70°F), often triggered by a cold soak
Intermediate to grow
Nameko
Pholiota microspora
Mild and nutty with a gentle earthiness.
Fruits at 10-16°C (50-61°F)
Intermediate to grow
Pioppino, black poplar
Cyclocybe aegerita
Nutty and peppery with a wine-like depth, stronger than most cultivated caps.
Fruits at 15-25°C (59-77°F)
Intermediate to grow
Wood ear
Auricularia auricula-judae
Almost none of its own; it is grown and eaten for texture and for carrying other flavours.
Fruits at 20-30°C (68-86°F)
Advanced to grow
Maitake, hen of the woods
Grifola frondosa
Rich, earthy and peppery, holding its own against strong seasoning.
Fruits at 13-18°C (55-64°F)
Advanced to grow
Enoki
Flammulina filiformis
Mild and slightly fruity; the cultivated white form is delicate, the wild brown form deeper.
Fruits at 8-12°C (46-54°F) for the long white form
Advanced to grow
Beech mushroom, shimeji
Hypsizygus tessulatus
Bitter and unpleasant raw, turning nutty and sweet with a shellfish note once cooked through.
Fruits at 13-18°C (55-64°F)
Outdoor bed
Spawn spread through wood chips or straw in a shaded corner of a garden. No sterile work, and it fruits for years.
Medicinal and tea
Grown for a simmered tea or an extract rather than the plate. Too bitter, corky or thin to eat, and any health claims sit outside what this reference documents.
Intermediate to grow
Reishi, lingzhi
Ganoderma lingzhi
Intensely bitter; it is not eaten as food.
Fruits at 21-27°C (70-80°F)
Intermediate to grow
Turkey tail
Trametes versicolor
None to speak of; it is too thin and tough to eat.
Fruits at 18-24°C (64-75°F)
Advanced to grow
Cordyceps
Cordyceps militaris
Mild; used as an ingredient in broths and teas rather than eaten for taste.
Fruits at 18-23°C (64-73°F)
Cultivation figures are the ranges published by growing references, not a single guaranteed number: real fruiting swings by strain, room and season, so treat them as where to aim. The mushroom on the plate is only ever as safe as knowing what it is, and here you know because it was grown, not found.