King trumpet mushrooms.

What it is

Pleurotus eryngii — king oyster, king trumpet, eryngii. It looks nothing like the rest of its family: a single thick white stem with a small tan cap, grown one to a bottle or in small clusters. Almost all the eating is in the stem, which is dense, uniform and pure white, and it behaves in a pan far more like a scallop or a pork chop than a mushroom.

It is also the outlier on shelf life. Seven to ten days in a proper fridge, and it firms up rather than softening — the only species we grow that is arguably better on day four than day one.

How it tastes, and how to cook it

Sweet and savoury with a distinct abalone or scallop character, more umami than any oyster and completely without the earthiness of shiitake. The dense flesh means it takes colour beautifully and holds a shape through anything.

The scallop cut is the reason this species has a following. Cut the stem into inch-thick coins, score a shallow crosshatch on both faces, salt them, sear hard in a dry pan, then add butter and baste. Six or seven minutes and you have something you can serve on a tasting menu.

• Scallops. Coins, scored, seared, basted in brown butter with thyme and garlic.
• Skewers. Halved lengthways, grilled hard — the best mushroom on a grill, no contest.
• Shredded. Torn along the grain into strands for a pulled-pork texture.
• Roasted whole, split down the middle, cut face down, forty minutes at 400°F, carved at the table.

Salt it before it goes in the pan, not after. Unlike thin-fleshed species, king trumpet has enough density that early salt draws surface moisture out and helps the crust rather than turning it grey.

What to look for when you buy

• A white, unblemished stem with no yellowing or soft spots, firm as a carrot when you press it.
• A small, tight cap. A wide flat cap means it was picked late; flavour is fine but the stem-to-cap ratio is worse.
• Weight. A good king trumpet feels heavier than it looks.

Prep, yield and waste

Trim a thin slice off the base and that is it — trim loss around 2%, the lowest of any species we grow, and the reason it is often the cheapest mushroom per usable pound despite a higher shelf price. A pound yields roughly twelve to fourteen scallop coins, or four generous centre-of-plate portions. Chefs can model this against every other species in the plate-cost calculator.

Keeping it

Seven to ten days at 34–38°F, unwrapped or in paper, in the crisper. It tolerates being stored whole better than any other species; portion it to order rather than pre-cutting, since a cut face is a spoilage surface.

Availability

Year-round, every week, and one of our two deepest lines. It is the species most restaurant accounts standardise on because the shelf life fits real ordering cycles — see the chef notes and the price sheet for volume breaks.

Common questions