Pyogo-beoseot (표고버섯)

Pyogo-beoseot is the shiitake, Lentinula edodes, a wood-rotting fungus native to the broadleaf forests of East Asia and long gathered from fallen oak and related hardwoods in the Korean peninsula. The mushroom has been dried and kept in the Korean pantry for centuries, and it stands among the staple dried goods of the temple table, where it gives depth to dishes cooked without meat or fish. Cultivation on cut logs, chiefly of oak, is carried on today in the southern provinces and in the mountain districts of Gangwon, and the dried caps are carried by every household that keeps the ordinary table of soups, stews and seasoned vegetables.

The cap of Lentinula edodes is brown, convex and rolled at the margin when young, with pale gills beneath and a tough, fibrous stalk. Sold fresh, it is firm and faintly resinous; sold dried, it is a hard, shrunken disc, and the best are the thick, domed caps with a cracked, pale-patterned surface, called flower mushrooms in the trade. Dried pyogo is soaked in cold water until supple, the stalk is cut away and kept for stock, and the cap is sliced thin or left whole. The soaking water is not thrown away: it is strained and used as a savoury liquid in soups, braises and rice. The cook uses the mushroom in japchae, in jeon, in bokkeum, in stock with dasima and dried anchovy, and in stuffed and braised dishes.

Pyogo is eaten in the seasoned vegetable dishes, in japchae, in the fillings of dumplings and in jeon, and it stands in the broth of soups with dasima and dried anchovy. It is taken with rice and with the clear soups of the meal, and with makgeolli or a light clear spirit when served as a fried or stuffed side. The structural reason is its savoury depth: the dried cap supplies glutamate and guanylate that give body to a dish with little or no meat, while its chew offers contrast to soft vegetables and noodles.