the Japanese and also the usual western name for a forest mushroom of Asia, Lentinus edodes, which grows on rotting wood. A crude sort of cultivation of this species dates back for many centuries in China and Japan. Scientific cultivation, which has developed into a major agricultural activity for a huge number of people in Japan, and for many in China and Korea, is a recent development. Shiitake are now so readily available in the Orient as to be the counterpart there of the common cultivated mushrooms in the western world; but they have the advantage of a better flavour. Cultivation of the shiitake has begun on a limited scale in parts of the USA and some European countries.
In the name shiitake, take means mushroom and shii is the name of one of the various Japanese trees whose dead wood serves as host to the mushrooms. However, other deciduous trees such as certain oaks are better, and preferred by the shiitake, whose name is therefore not wholly appropriate.
A full-sized shiitake has a cap up to 10 cm (4″) wide and occasionally larger, brown but fissured with a network of white cracks. The off-white gills are also split and torn, and run part of the way down the stem like fan vaulting. The stem, which is set eccentrically, allowing the mushroom to grow from a vertical trunk, is pale brown and has no ring.
In Japanese markets, shiitake are graded into two main qualities: donko, the preferred one, with thick, roundish, and only partly opened caps; and koshin, when the cap is fully opened and thinner. A similar distinction is made in China, where the donko type is known as ‘floral’, because the white patterns show more distinctly on it, or as ‘winter mushrooms’ (they are usually grown in the winter, when the cold slows down growth and the mushrooms can absorb more nutrients.
Several species of Lentinus grow wild in Europe and the USA. They are similar in appearance but tend to be smaller than the shiitake. Most are edible, even the one known in the USA as ‘railroad wrecker’ from its ability to destroy the wooden ties or sleepers on railroads.
A white species, L. polychrous, is common throughout SE Asia and S. India.
Shiitake have for long enjoyed a reputation for being health giving as well as delicious, and are sometimes called ‘the elixir of life’. Recent research suggests that they contain substances which may ward off flu and lower cholesterol levels in the blood.
The flavour of fresh shiitake is strong, and a few are enough in most dishes. They are used for appearance and texture as well as for flavour, and the velvety caps are normally kept whole unless very large. The stems, which are tougher than the caps, can be used for soup. Dried shiitake, which are exported on a large scale from Japan, retain much of the original flavour.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
