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Shiitake
Lentinula edodes · Fungus
40 pairings
The shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is an umbrella-capped wood-rotting mushroom native to the mountain forests of East Asia, and after the button mushroom it is the most widely cultivated edible fungus on Earth. Its tan to dark-brown cap, often cracked into a pale cream lattice, sits on a tough, fibrous stem over cream-coloured gills. Fresh, it is meaty, springy and gently savoury with a soft woodland aroma; dried and rehydrated, it becomes one of the most intensely umami foods in the kitchen, with a deep, almost garlicky sulfur-savoury smell. It anchors the dashi, stir-fries, braises and hot pots of Japanese, Chinese and Korean cooking and is the backbone of countless vegetarian stocks.
Picking a good onedrag
Thick cap, gills whiteSlimy cap, gills wet and dark
Open flatThe standard market cap. Stir-fry, braise, soup - stem off and into the stock pot.Everyday best
Cap surfaceEven brown, matte, rim flattened out
GillsOff-white, dry, still standing apart
Stem and fleshCut end darkening, flesh still firm
SmellMushroomy, a thread of garlic-sulfur
What to look for, from thick cap, gills white to slimy cap, gills wet and dark.
What one gives you
100%
Usable yield
19 g a mushroom · nothing binned, though the woody stem is pulled off for the stock pot rather than the pan
19 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
A domestic fridge holds it about 2× longer than the counter.
Humidity
90-95%
Damp air keeps the cap from shrivelling, but no free water: droplets on the skin let bacterial blotch in as brown pitted spots.
Airflow
Paper bag, never sealed
A paper bag, never sealed plastic: shut in, the mushroom's own breath condenses on the caps and they slime over within days.
Makes almost none, browns in it
It gives off next to none itself, but ethylene from apples, pears and ripening bananas browns the caps. Odour is the other risk — they take up onion and fish smells.