King oyster mushrooms

Form

Cut mushroom

Typical weight

40–90 g

Typical thickness

15–25 mm

Cut

Not a cut of anything

The catalogue already holds two mushrooms and this is the one that behaves differently. A button mushroom and a portobello cap are both mostly water, and the first thing heat does to them is drive it off — which is why they shrink so much and why a crowded pan of them steams. A king oyster stem is dense and comparatively dry, so a cut face put on a hot grate makes contact and stays in contact, and it takes bar marks the way a slab of halloumi does. Scoring the cut face in a crosshatch is commonly described and does something real: it increases the surface meeting the bars and gives fat or marinade somewhere to sit. No duration is published — neither extension document covers this species — and the honest note is that it is quicker than its density suggests, because there is little water to boil off first.

It stuck to the grate

Food sticking to the grate — 2 distinguishable causes.

It went watery or soggy

Vegetables went soggy instead of browning — 2 distinguishable causes.

It never browned

Vegetables went soggy instead of browning — 2 distinguishable causes.

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to king oyster mushrooms, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.

• No institutional source has been found that publishes a grilling time for this one. The two extension services behind BBQHQ's other produce timings do not cover it.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.