How To Prepare Oyster Mushrooms in 3 Steps: Clean, Trim and Cut

What are oyster mushrooms?

Oyster mushrooms are ranked among the most popular mushrooms for their appetizing texture and savory flavor. They are clearly new favorite.

Pleurotus ostreatus, as they are known in scientific terms, or Hiratake, as they are referred to in the Far East, are recognized by their extremely short, nearly non-existent stems. Their caps are wide and fan-shaped, strongly resembling an oyster, which is what gives them their name. 

There are 7 common types of oyster mushrooms, whose colors range from light gray to dark brown, with white to cream flesh and decurrent gills. Undoubtedly, the two most popular types are the king oyster mushroom and pearl oyster mushroom (see above photo).

Thanks to their rising popularity you are almost sure to find some if you know where to buy them. If they are not available for whatever reason, just check out our list of oyster mushroom substitutes. Some of them are just as good as the original, making them the perfect replacement should you need it! 

How to clean them? When do you even need to?

Oyster mushrooms are almost never dirty since they grow on wood. Just cut the end of the stem and you are good to go.

Never wash fresh ones. One thing you will actually want to avoid is washing fresh mushrooms, like how you would normally wash a vegetable. It spoils the structure and you cannot even store them wet.

Wash dried ones. Rinse them in cold running water to remove any debris that may be stuck to them. You will soak them in water as a next step so no harm done.

Rehydrating dried oyster mushrooms involves soaking them in a bowl of boiling water for at least 25 minutes. If you’re short on time and want to skip soaking them, you can go ahead and directly add cleaned dehydrated mushrooms to any dish that you know will need to be cooked for at least 25 minutes. 

Do you need to peel them?

The quick answer is NO. In the case of oyster mushrooms, the “skin,” or outermost part, is no different from its “flesh,” or insides, in taste, and is perfectly safe to eat.

You don’t even see it as a peel compared to portobello mushrooms or common white button mushrooms where you can easily see which part comes off easily.

Peeling oyster mushrooms is an unnecessarily tedious process and will not have any effect on the taste of your dish. On the contrary, all it will likely do is contribute to food waste and take a lot of time.

How to trim them?

The number one rule for trimming is to only do it when you absolutely need to. So when do you need to do it?

• Trim any parts of the oyster mushrooms that look wet, dirty or moist.
• Check to make sure you do not have any mushrooms with white fuzz, mold, yellow spots or yellow slime, and discard the ones that look too far gone.
• Finally, trim off the bottoms of the stems (roots), which are known for being tough and difficult to cook. Sometimes you can see the tree bark stuck to it like in the below photo. You don’t need that part right?

How to cut them?

The two most commonly known oyster mushrooms are the pearl oyster and the king oyster. I know six ways to cut them before cooking.

Whether you want to dice them, chop them, slice them, shred them, or use them whole depends entirely on your own preferences and the type of recipe you’re using them in.

However, you should keep in mind that like any other mushrooms they release moisture. This means they most definitely shrink, so you want to make sure not to cut or shred them too thin.

Once you’ve got prep work out of the way, it’s finally time to get cracking and cook your mushrooms! If you’re wondering what all the ways to cook them are, check out our article on how to cook oyster mushrooms to learn about them in detail.

The best oyster mushroom recipes

Browse through to find your next favorite among these 40 oyster mushroom recipes.