Turkey Tail Mushroom

Turkey Tail is a fan-shaped bracket mushroom, Trametes versicolor, ringed with concentric bands of colour that give it its name. The flavour is mild and earthy with a slightly woody edge and a light umami depth, and the flesh is tough, nearer to bark than to a cooking mushroom.

In the wild it grows in overlapping tiers on fallen hardwood logs and stumps, and it is sold here dried so it keeps well on the shelf. Also called turkey tail fungus, cloud mushroom, yun zhi or kawaratake, it is a popular brewing and flavouring ingredient for home cooks who like to make their own mushroom broths, decoctions and tea blends.

It has a long history in Chinese and Japanese herbal traditions, where it is simmered into teas and broths.

How to use it

Simmer the pieces slowly in broths and soups for a clean, earthy background, or steep them alone or with other botanicals for a mild, woody tea. Ground to a powder at home, they go straight into culinary blends, teas and recipes. The pieces are too tough to eat whole, so simmer them and use the liquid, or grind them first. Give a decoction a long, low simmer rather than a short steep; the flavour sits in the tough flesh and takes time to come out.

Details

Also known as

Coriolus versicolor
Polyporus versicolor
Yun Zhi (雲芝)
Kawaratake (Japanese)
Cloud Mushroom
Many-Zoned Polypore
Turkey Tail Fungus
Champignon queue de dinde (French)
فطر ذيل الديك الرومي (Arabic)