Gourmet wood-lovers
Nameko
Pholiota microspora
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.
Also sold as
- Butterscotch mushroom
- Pholiota nameko
In the kitchen
Flavour
Mild and nutty with a gentle earthiness.
Texture
Small amber caps under a natural gelatinous coating that thickens a broth; the coating is the point, not a fault.
In the kitchen
A classic miso-soup and hot-pot mushroom in Japan, where its light gel gives body to the liquid. Add near the end and do not rinse the coating away.
How it is cultivated
Substrate
Hardwood logs or sterilised supplemented hardwood sawdust; it prefers cool, damp conditions.
Fruiting temperature
10-16°C (50-61°F)
Humidity
90-95% relative humidity
How it is grown
Hardwood logs, or a supplemented sawdust block
Time to first harvest
A few months on a block; longer on logs
How much, how long
Repeated small clustered flushes
Difficulty at home
Intermediate. Straightforward on sawdust or logs, but it wants genuinely cool, wet fruiting weather.
What is worth knowing about it
One of the most-grown mushrooms in Japan and rarely seen fresh in the West, where it usually turns up canned or vacuum-packed. Its natural gelatinous coat is a culinary feature, prized for the body it lends to soup.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Pholiota microspora
- Stamets, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
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