Lion's mane as crab: three recipes that genuinely come close

Harvest a lion's mane for the first time and you are holding a white, shaggy ball that resembles nothing you know from the kitchen. The familiar comparison is crab or lobster, and it sounds like a sales pitch until you have cooked it properly. Then it turns out to be true: the fibrous, faintly sweet, meaty bite sits closer to shellfish than to any other mushroom. These three recipes bring that out. But first, the step everyone skips.

The step that decides everything: dry-frying

A lion's mane is overwhelmingly water, even more than an oyster mushroom, and that water sits in thousands of fine spines that hold it like a sponge. Fry it straight in butter and it boils in its own juice and turns soggy. So always do this first: tear or slice the lion's mane into one and a half centimetre slabs or chunks, lay them in a dry, moderately hot pan with no fat, and leave them for five to eight minutes while they hiss and shrink. Press them down now and then with a spatula. When the hissing stops and the slabs get golden edges, the water is out. Only then come the fat, the salt and the flavour. This is half of every recipe below.

Recipe 1: lion's mane in brown butter

The simplest and, in our view, the best. Dry-fry the slabs as above. Then add a generous knob of butter, turn the heat up slightly, and let the butter brown while you turn the slabs in it. Salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon at the end, some parsley. Three minutes. Serve on toasted bread or next to a piece of fish. The taste of brown butter and lemon on the sweet, fibrous lion's mane is exactly where the crab story comes from.

Recipe 2: lion's mane cakes, like crab cakes

For a whole lion's mane of 300 to 400 grams. Tear it into small pieces, dry-fry until well shrunk, and let them cool. Mix with one egg, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of mustard, a finely chopped spring onion, a handful of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne or paprika. Shape into flat cakes, let them firm up in the fridge for half an hour, and fry in oil for three minutes per side until golden. Serve with lemon and a sauce of mayonnaise, gherkin and dill. This recipe wins over people who "do not like mushrooms", as has been proven more than once.

Recipe 3: lobster roll without the lobster

Dry-fry lion's mane chunks, then briefly in butter with a crushed clove of garlic. Let cool and mix with mayonnaise, a little lemon juice, finely diced celery, chives and pepper. Fill a soft, lightly toasted roll with it, ideally a buttered brioche or hot dog bun. It is a take on the American lobster roll, and on a summer's day with a grow kit on the balcony this is the dish that silences your guests.

When do you harvest for the best flavour?

Young. A lion's mane is at its best while the spines are still short and pure white, half a centimetre to a centimetre long. Once the spines lengthen and turn yellowish or pink at the tips, the flavour turns more bitter and the texture softer. So harvest a day too early rather than too late, and cut the whole ball off close to the block with a sharp knife. Usually a second one follows, see our piece on flushes.

Storing

Fresh, three days at most in the fridge, in paper, not plastic. To keep it longer: dry-fry as above first, then freeze. Freezing raw gives you a wet sponge. And if you harvest more than you cook, make lion's mane cakes for the freezer; after thawing and frying they are nearly as good as fresh.