Gourmet wood-lovers
Wood ear
Auricularia auricula-judae
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 fungus
- Cloud ear (related A. cornea)
- Mu er
- Jelly ear
In the kitchen
Flavour
Almost none of its own; it is grown and eaten for texture and for carrying other flavours.
Texture
Gelatinous and crunchy at once, keeping a distinctive snap after cooking and rehydrating.
In the kitchen
Usually bought dried and soaked back to size, then shredded into hot-and-sour soup, stir-fries and salads for its crunch. Cook it through; the texture is the whole reason it is used.
How it is cultivated
Substrate
Hardwood logs or sterilised supplemented hardwood sawdust, kept very humid and warm.
Fruiting temperature
20-30°C (68-86°F)
Humidity
90-95% relative humidity
How it is grown
Hardwood logs, or a supplemented sawdust block
Time to first harvest
A month or two on a block in warm, humid conditions
How much, how long
Repeated flushes of ear-shaped brackets
Difficulty at home
Intermediate. Undemanding except that it wants real warmth and near-saturated humidity to keep its jelly texture.
What is worth knowing about it
One of the oldest cultivated mushrooms, grown in China for well over a thousand years, and among the most produced in the world by volume. It is a texture ingredient rather than a flavour one, which is why it is nearly always sold dried.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Auricularia auricula-judae
- Stamets, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
Others in this group