Gourmet wood-lovers
Shiitake
Lentinula edodes
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
- Black forest mushroom
- Oakwood mushroom
- Xiang gu
In the kitchen
Flavour
Deeply savoury and smoky, one of the richest umami mushrooms; dried shiitake are more intense again and count as a different ingredient from fresh.
Texture
Meaty caps; the stems stay woody and are kept for stock rather than eaten.
In the kitchen
Cook thoroughly, always: raw or undercooked shiitake causes a striking whip-mark rash in a small number of people, called shiitake dermatitis, which proper cooking prevents. Slice the caps for stir-fries, braises and soups; simmer the stems into stock.
How it is cultivated
Substrate
Hardwood logs, classically oak, or sterilised supplemented hardwood sawdust blocks. The log method is the near-foolproof home route.
Fruiting temperature
10-21°C (50-70°F), often triggered by a cold soak
Humidity
80-90% relative humidity
How it is grown
Inoculated hardwood logs, or a supplemented sawdust block
Time to first harvest
6 to 18 months on logs; 2 to 4 months on a sawdust block
How much, how long
A log fruits for six years or more
Difficulty at home
Intermediate. Log culture is easy but slow; the fast sawdust-block route needs sterile technique.
What is worth knowing about it
The practical answer to almost every identification worry: plug a hardwood log with spawn, wait a year, and harvest a known species for years. Its one real caution is culinary, not mycological, and it is solved by cooking it through.
Elsewhere on the site
Sources
- Wikipedia, Lentinula edodes
- Field & Forest Products and university extension (log cultivation)
Others in this group