Straw mushroom

Volvariella volvacea · Fungus

40 pairings

The straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) is a small, egg-shaped tropical mushroom and one of the most heavily cultivated edible fungi in the world, grown on beds of rice straw across the hot, humid lowlands of East and Southeast Asia. Harvested young, while still enclosed in a papery outer veil (the volva), it looks like a smooth grey-brown to blackish "egg"; sliced open it reveals the pale cap and stem folded inside. Mild, faintly earthy and pleasantly slippery-tender, it is a workhorse of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino cooking — the familiar sliced button in canned "straw mushrooms" that turns up worldwide in stir-fries, hot-and-sour soup, tom yam and countless braises.

Picking a good onedrag

Sound tin, brine clean, buttons springyBulging tin, brine ropy, flesh mush

Opened and drainedDrain and rinse the brine off. Retorting has already done the cooking a fresh straw mushroom needs, so these are tender as sold: add them late to stir-fries, hot-and-sour soup, tom yam and braises and let them take up the sauce rather than boiling them to rags.Everyday best

The tin, in the shopA shallow dent in the body wall, both ends flat

The brine, once openFaintly hazy, still thin and free-running

In the hand, once openSofter but whole in the fingers, springs back

Smell on openingMild and neutral, mostly just the brine

What to look for, from sound tin, brine clean, buttons springy to bulging tin, brine ropy, flesh mush.

What one gives you

5.5 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Preparing