Beech Mushrooms with Japanese dashi - Saute the beech mushrooms with butter and simmer with dashi and sake. In my Asian market, there are always abundant choices when it comes to mushrooms—shiitake, enoki, button, portobello, buna shimeji, chicken drumstick/king oyster mushrooms, etc. Shimejis are little characters (desktop buddies or mascots) who play around in your windows of Google Chrome (web browser) or Chrome OS, while you are browsing the internet. Pick up a shimeji with the mouse pointer, drag them around, and drop them where you want. They walk, crawl, and climb all over your screen and interact with elements on web.

Japanese popular mushrooms, clockwise from left, enokitake, buna-shimeji, bunapi-shimeji, king oyster mushroom and shiitake (front).

Lyophyllum shimeji

Bunapi (developed by Hokuto Corporation)

Shimeji (Japanese: シメジ, 占地 or 湿地) is a group of edible mushrooms native to East Asia, but also found in northern Europe.^[1]Hon-shimeji (Lyophyllum shimeji) is a mycorrhizal fungus and difficult to cultivate. Other species are saprotrophs, and buna-shimeji is now widely cultivated. Shimeji is rich in umami-tasting compounds such as guanylic acid, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid.^[2]

Species[edit]

Several species are sold as shimeji mushrooms. All are saprotroph except Lyophyllum shimeji.

Mycorrhiza

Hon-shimeji (ホンシメジ), Lyophyllum shimeji

The cultivation methods have been patented by several groups, such as Takara Bio^[3] and Yamasa,^[4] and the cultivated hon-shimeji is available from several manufacturers in Japan.^[5]^[6]

Saprotroph

Shimeji E Japones Ou Chinese

Buna-shimeji (ブナシメジ, lit. beech shimeji), Hypsizygus tessellatus, also known in English as the brown beech or brown clamshell mushroom

Hypsizygus marmoreus is a synonym of Hypsizygus tessellatus. Cultivation of Buna-shimeji was first patented by Takara Shuzo Co.,Ltd. in 1972 as hon-shimeji and the production started in 1973 in Japan.^[7] Now, several breeds are widely cultivated and sold fresh in markets.

Bunapi-shimeji (ブナピー), known in English as the white beech or white clamshell mushroom

Bunapi was selected from UV-irradiated buna-shimeji ('hokuto #8' x 'hokuto #12') and the breed was registered as 'hokuto shiro #1' by Hokuto Corporation.^[8]^[9]

Hatake-shimeji (ハタケシメジ), Lyophyllum decastes
Shirotamogidake (シロタモギダケ), Hypsizygus ulmarius

These two species had been also sold as hon-shimeji.

Velvet pioppino (alias velvet pioppini, black poplar mushroom, Chinese: 茶樹菇/茶树菇), Agrocybe aegerita

Cooking[edit]

Shimeji should always be cooked: it is not a good mushroom to serve raw due to a somewhat bitter taste, but the bitterness disappears completely upon cooking. The cooked mushroom has a pleasant, firm, slightly crunchy texture and a slightly nutty flavor. Cooking also makes this mushroom easier to digest. It works well in stir-fried foods, as well as with wild game or seafood. Also it can be used in soups, stews and in sauces. When cooked alone, Shimeji mushrooms can be sautéed whole, including the stem or stalk (only the very end cut off), using a higher temperature or they can be slow roasted on a low temperature with a small amount of butter or cooking oil. Shimeji is used in soups, nabe and takikomi gohan.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shimeji.

^Hon Shimeji located in Sweden - http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,703531,00.html (German) - retrieved June 30, 2010
^(in Japanese)Hyoeiオリジナルコラム（なでしこ通信）日本人はキノコが大好きArchived 2007-12-13 at the Wayback Machine, Hyogo NCC College.
^METHOD FOR ARTIFICIALLY CULTURING LYOPHYLLUM SHIMEJI, TAKARA AGURI KK, JP2001120059. ARTIFICIAL CULTIVATION METHOD OF LYOPHYLLUM SHIMEJI, TAKARA BIO INC, JP2007143565.
^NEW STRAIN OF LYOPHYLLUM SHIMEJI AND USE OF THE SAME, YAMASA SHOYU KK, JP2006271234. METHOD FOR ARTIFICIALLY CULTURING LYOPHYLLUM SHIMEJI AND CULTURE MEDIUM, Yamasa Shoyu KK, JP2007054044.
^(in Japanese)雪国本しめじArchived 2007-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Yukiguni Maitake Co.,Ltd.
^(in Japanese)ヤマサほんしめじ, Yamasa Corporation.
^(in Japanese)Hypsizigus marmoreus - 長期利用微生物参考データ（食品工業利用微生物）, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.
^Bunashimeji and BunapiArchived 2007-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, Hokuto Corporation.
^(in Japanese)ホクト白１号菌 (第13294号)^{[permanent dead link]}, Plant Variety Protection, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan).

External links[edit]

Honshimeji Mushroom, RecipeTips.com. Brown Beech (Buna shimeji), White Beech (Bunapi shimeji), and the Pioppino (Agrocybe aegerita) mushrooms.

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shimeji&oldid=1026947184'

Hypsizygus tessellatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Lyophyllaceae
Genus:	Hypsizygus
Species:
Binomial name
*Hypsizygus tesselatus* (Bull.) Singer (1947)^[1]
Synonyms
Hypsizygus marmoreusPeck^[2] Pleurotus elongatipes(Peck) H.E.Bigelow^[2]

Hypsizygus tesselatus (Buna shimeji) is an edible mushroom^[2] native to East Asia. It is cultivated locally in temperate climates in Europe, North America and Australia and sold fresh in super markets. In nature, shimeji are gilled mushrooms that grow on wood. Most often the mushroom is found on beech trees, hence the common name, beech mushroom. They are often small and thin in appearance and popular in many nations across the world.^[3]

Two variations are known:

Buna-shimeji (ja:ブナシメジ), Hypsizigus tessellatus, (Brown Beech Mushroom , Beech Mushroom, BeechBrown Clamshell Mushroom);
Bunapi-shimeji (ja:ブナピー), (White Beech Mushroom, White Clamshell Mushroom); bunapi was selected from buna-shimeji and registered by Hokto Corporation.

Cooking[edit]

Being tough when raw,^[4] the Shimeji should be cooked, having a bitter taste when raw which disappears completely upon cooking. The cooked mushroom has a firm, slightly crunchy texture and a nutty flavor. Preparation makes the mushroom easier to digest. It is often eaten with stir-fried foods including wild game and seafood. It is used in soups, stews and sauces. When prepared alone, Shimeji mushrooms can be sautéed as a whole, including the stem or stalk (only the very end cut off), using a higher temperature; or, they can be slow roasted on a low temperature with a small amount of butter or cooking oil. Shimeji is used in soups, nabe and takikomi gohan.

Species[edit]

Shimeji E Japones Ou Chinese

Cooking[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Cooking[edit]