Crispy fried oyster mushrooms.

Fried mushrooms fail for one reason: water. A wet mushroom steams inside its own batter and the crust slides off in one piece. The fix is a dry mushroom, a properly hot pan of oil, and a double dredge that gives the flour something to grip.

Blue oyster is the species for this — the frilled cap edges create hundreds of little catchments for flour. Pink oyster works too and gives a chewier, meatier result. Both are on this week’s harvest board.

Mushrooms

• 1 lb blue oyster mushrooms, torn into finger-sized pieces

Brine

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp salt

Dredge

• 1½ cups plain flour
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1½ tsp fine salt

To fry

• 1 quart neutral oil
• Flaky salt, to finish

Method

1. Tear, do not slice. Pull the cluster apart into pieces roughly the width of two fingers. A torn edge grips batter; a knife-cut face does not. Trim off the woody base.
2. Brine 15 minutes. Whisk buttermilk, hot sauce and salt, add the mushrooms, and turn them over so every piece is coated. Longer than 20 minutes and they start to waterlog.
3. Heat the oil to 350°F in a heavy pan, no more than a third full. Use a thermometer — this is the one variable that decides whether the crust sets or soaks.
4. Mix the dredge and add 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk brine into the flour, rubbing it through with your fingers until you have small shaggy lumps. Those lumps are the craggy bits everybody eats first.
5. Double dredge. Lift a mushroom out, let the excess drip, press it firmly into the flour, shake, dip back in the buttermilk briefly, then press into the flour a second time. Set on a rack.
6. Fry in batches of six or seven pieces, 3–4 minutes, turning once, until deep gold. Crowding drops the oil temperature and gives you pale, greasy mushrooms.
7. Drain on a rack, not paper — paper traps steam and softens the underside. Salt immediately while the surface is still hot enough to hold it.

Notes that matter

Oil temperature is the whole recipe. Below 325°F the batter absorbs oil before it sets. Above 375°F the crust colours before the mushroom has cooked through. Let the oil come back up between batches.

Do not wash the mushrooms. Ever, but especially here — see storing fresh mushrooms for why. Brush any substrate off the base with a dry cloth.

Leftovers re-crisp properly in a 400°F oven for six minutes. They do not survive a microwave, and nobody should pretend otherwise.

What to do with them

Flaky salt and a lemon wedge is enough. Beyond that: hot honey and pickles in a bun, a garlic aioli on the side, or piled onto a bowl of noodles. Or take the same fried pieces into tacos.

Common questions