The original lions mane mushroom crab cake recipe was born on this site. This is one of my all-time favorites. I guarantee this is so good, some people may not be able to tell it's a crabcake made from mushrooms instead of crab.
If I get asked for my go-to recipe for Hericium / Lions mane mushrooms, crab cakes are usually the answer. Don't get me wrong, they're perfectly good sautéed and browned, but one of their best characteristics is their texture and flavor that resembles crab meat in a strangely pleasing way.
Sometimes mushrooms with different shapes, forms and textures can be challenging to cook in creative ways, but when they have a mild texture like crustaceans (shrimp of the woods are good too, but different) crab cakes are a tried and true crowd-pleaser that need to be in your repertoire.
The only problem can be finding enough of them to make into cakes, since you'll need at least a good pound to serve four people. I finally have a log that's producing pounds of Hericium coralloides mushrooms dependably.
These can be one of the more tricky wild mushrooms to find from my experience and most of the time if people aren't primed to look for them, they might just pass them by as just another strange looking tree growth.
Thankfully, one cake is so rich I don't even need to have meat alongside for a meal. When the time comes that you find a nice, multiple-pound clump (clusters over 50 lbs are possible!), do yourself a favor and make the lions mane crab cakes at least once. You deserve to make them, yes you do.
For the best texture, compress those cakes
Chefs Tips
They're easy to make, but there's a couple things to know about making mushroom cakes that will both hold up while cooking, and not be too tough.
- Don't get happy with the breadcrumbs or flour.
- Regular eggs here. I don't use jumbo sized eggs.
- Remember that Hericiums / lions mane mushrooms can hold a lot of water and the more you can remove before frying the finished mushroom cakes, the better (I squeeze it out after sweating them).
- Don't put a bunch of B.S. in your lions mane cakes, save your fake cheese, beans, or other obscenity for another day.
- For the chefs treat, put a fried egg on it.
- A chef trick is to use a ring mold the best shape, in a pinch just cut a plastic bottle to form a plastic ring about 2 inches tall by about 3 inches wide.
- Adding to #6, compacting the cakes also ensures a really meaty, solid cake, trust me here.
- Don't cook like a civilian. Double check your seasoning for herbs and salt, then before frying the cakes, check it again. It's not my fault if you don't know how to season your food, so don't complain that it's underseasoned. Capische?
- Golden. Brown. Crust. If I see any weak-looking, blonde, Bush-League cakes, you'll be on salad station faster than you can say potato peeler.
Lions Mane or Hericium Mushroom Crabcakes
Ingredients
Mushrooms
- 1 lb lions mane or other Hericium mushrooms
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons water
Cake mix
- ¼ cup minced scallion
- ¼ cup minced red bell pepper
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup high fat mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons chopped herbs like cilantro tarragon, or Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon worcesterchire or similar I use mushroom ketchup
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning optional, a mix of paprika, cayenne, and extra salt can be substituted
- 1 large egg
- Kosher salt to taste
Serving
- All purpose flour for dredging
- Flavorless oil for cooking the cakes
- Fresh green salad
- Dollop of spicy mayonnaise optional
- Fresh cut chives optional
- Lemon wedges
Instructions
Wilt the mushrooms and remove the water
- Pick the lions mane mushrooms into pieces to resemble crab meat. Put the mushrooms in a pan with the water and salt, cover and bring to a simmer, stir, cover, and cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms are wilted and have given up their juice.
- Allow the mushrooms to cool, then squeeze out as much water as you possibly can. This step is important as mushrooms, unlike crab, contain lots of water.
Mix with the crab cake mix
- Combine the mushrooms with the cake ingredients and mix well. Taste a bit of the mixture (you can cook it if raw egg weirds you out) adjust the seasoning for salt and anything else you’re looking for, then allow the crab cake mix to rest for at least 15 minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to hydrate, which will make forming the cakes easier. In a perfect world, you’ll let it sit overnight.
Cooking
- To cook the cakes, form 4 oz patties of the mixture (it will be delicate, don’t worry—the egg will set as they cook). For the most refined look, form the cakes using a ring mold.
- Heat a pan with a few tablespoons of oil.
- Heat an oven to 350F. Meanwhile, gently dredge the cakes in flour on both sides, tap off the excess, and brown gently on medium heat. When one side of the cakes are golden brown, gently flip the cakes and transfer the pan to the oven and cook until hot throughout, about 10 minutes.
Serving
- Remove the cakes to a plate with a fresh green salad, top with a dollop of spicy mayonnaise or aioli if using, sprinkle with chives and serve with lemon wedges on the side. The cakes are also excellent served on a bun like you would a burger.
Brooke McGowen
Please, is there something I can use instead of mayonnaise? I really hate it! Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Mayonnaise serves the purpose of adding fat which prevents the cakes from being dry. You can probably skip it, or use sour cream or yogurt.
Ginger Hurst
First time finding and cooking Lions Mane and this recipe was a huge hit! I substituted the red bell pepper with shallots. The tarragon pulled everything together nicely! I loved reading through the comments. So many helpful tips! I may have missed it but if I go ahead and make more cakes to freeze, when I plan to serve them, should I thaw before cooking?
Again, excellent recipe and great tips! Also, I used a large wide mouthed mason jar ring to shape my cakes and it worked perfectly!
Alan Bergo
Hey Ginger glad it worked for you.
Michele
These are amazing! I’ve made them 3 times this season and this time used some of your mushroom ketchup. Excellent recipe- wouldn’t change a thing! Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Michelle. One of my favorites here.
patrick reeb
Gave this recipe a try, previous batches were from YouTube:How to" videos. Alan's prep is far better, IMO.
The hericium crab cakes (not pale/pasty) and worthy of tagging you.
I squeezed them in cheese cloth and really did the trick.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks, great tip for squeezing in cheesecloth, I'm going to add a note about that. Great idea.
Joe Maurer
Alan,
I've cooked this recipe 6 times over the summer and recommend it and you to strangers. I purchase the shrooms from a grower at the farmers market, because that's how I roll. : ) It is a fabulous recipe...I love your writing too, chef! I didn't get happy with the breadcrumbs - chef! Sincerely, Joe - friend of Sam Thayers. Hey when's your new book out?
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Joe. One of my favorite recipes here.
Kjell Hedstrom
Very cool. Thanks is for the write up.
I picked a bunch of Comb Tooth hericium and will try this.
Do you think it’ll work out to make these cakes and freeze some of them for heating up later?
Alan Bergo
Yep lots of people have done that.
Ginger
Thanks for that idea! I may just do that with all of my lions mane shroom I harvested.
Michelle Targonsk
Perfection! Took a bounty of hericium, utilized your recipe with enough to share.
Total mind blowing flavor!
Followed exactly but
added some chopped lovage!
Wow, it slapped!
Served a filthy remoulade that definitely delivered.
Thank you for all you do!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Michelle, really appreciate that.
Gabe
About to try this recipe and I'm sure there will be leftover—would you recommend freezing the cakes before or after cooking?
Thanks!
Alan Bergo
Cook them until the egg coagulates and they set, but don’t brown them hard. Freeze, bake until golden right from the freezer.
Gabe
Thanks for the speedy reply chef! As it turned out, leftovers were not an issue after all. They were just too darn scrumptious. Great recipe and your website and youtube channel are a gold mine.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks, glad it worked for you.
Kalyn
Lovely recipe!! Tarragon gave it delicate flavor full of depth. Used gluten free Italian bread crumbs and it was delicious. Thanks for the base recipe!!
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you. I have to use GF crumbs too. 🙂
TJ
I finally found a hericium big enough for this recipe! The only alteration I made is to sub Maggi for the worchestershire, and I added a little bit of of Noma's Smoked Mushroom Garum (just a few drops, I didn't want a smokey forward flavour). Outstanding - thanks!
Alan Bergo
Thanks TJ
Lee
So delicious and easy, even for someone who has never done sweating and squeezing dry before--things a basic cook like me would call "fancy stuff". Mine weren't round and perfect like yours. I don't have a scale and "guesstimated" that I only had half a pound or so, and made 2 freeform slightly wetter cakes that weren't pressed into a mold, but turned out great anyway and hubby the mushroom finder loved them. Thanks!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Lee. Glad it worked for you. It's fine to guesstimate and eyeball. A recipe is just an idea.
lou
This recipe is SOLID and scales easily. Do not skip extracting the water. Otherwise, things could get messy in a hurry once you've got heat applied (and you can use the water to make mushroom broth if you're inclined.)
I 1-1 subbed out the scallion for a fine-diced yellow onion and the bell pepper for a cornito pepper (just using what I have, no other reason), and it was fine. Recommend the ring mold, cookie cutter, or even the top of a coffee mug to help mold these. I molded everything on a tray first while my cast iron was pre-heating. Added them all at once and rotated for even browning before popping them in the oven.
This is the second time I've had these, and the first time I've made them myself. I made them on stream, and my community was impressed with how simple they were and how much they resembled the familiar crab meat version. I 100% will make again.
Alan Bergo
Thanks, glad it worked for you. Lots of work has gone into it over the years. Thanks for sharing your variations too, I think people will find them helpful.
Chuck
I found a 2 1/2 pound Coral Tooth in our woods yesterday and I have to say, this recipe may be my favorite of all time. It was so good a sudden gluttony overcame me and I ate three! 😀😀😀
Not sure I need any other food now,😀
Thanks!!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Chuck. A lot of time went into making this in the version you see now.
Todd
I love this recipe and have made them many times. I have question. If using a pound is that before draining the water or after. I know they can hold a lot of water which would affect weight. I just found about 3 pounds wet. Thx!
Todd
Alan Bergo
Hi Todd. It's before.
Rusty
It was my first experience with lion's mane mushrooms (home grown courtesy a gift I received, purchased from Smallhold). They had a few taco recipes using them on their site, but also mentioned making crab cakes with them, and so I had to find a recipe for that and wound up here. I had just two mushrooms, that weighed in at a combined 2 pounds, so I made a double recipe. They were delicious and enjoyed by all, topped with lemon squeezings and/or a remoulade sauce I made. The only thing I'd note is that I spent about three hours getting them pulled apart into a crab like texture. I'm sure it can be done more efficiently than I managed, but the first time you make it, don't look at the 30 minute prep and 15 minute cooking time and start just 45 minutes before you want people fed. I started 4 hours ahead (and made the remoulade before that), and we ate about 10 minutes late while I was still cooking the last half of the batch.
Alan Bergo
Glad you liked them. The first time you make something is always a learning curve, but I'm going to be honest here: 3 hours is way too much time and is not representative of what most people experience making this, especially if they only use a pound of mushrooms. Pulling the mushrooms apart should only take a few minutes and it doesn't have to be perfect. You can roughly chop the mushrooms if you really want to save time.
Le
So good!
Alan Bergo
Glad you liked them.
Michelle Kisliuk
Found an enormous monkey's head lion's mane yesterday in central VA. At least three pounds. Today we followed your recipe with some modifications (used a mixed mayo/mustard since I didn't have any mayo), and A1 sauce instead of worschester sauce. Also made a picante tomato sauce with diced tomatoes and hot pepper flakes for the garnish. And we cooked some of the cakes in the air fryer to crispy, and used a rye flour for breading and some packaged stuffing mix for the bread crumbs; SO good!! Thank you so much for the recipe and the tips about sweating and squeezing out the mushroom. We are full and have some left for tomorrow.
Michelle Kisliuk
oh, and also added some avocado oil to replace some of what would have been mayo.
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you. I love these.
Carrie
Hi Alan,
Can this recipe be used with coral mushrooms as well? I've never found lion's mane near me (though I know it exists, it's quite elusive) but I have tons of coral. Thoughts?
Thanks!
Alan Bergo
I haven’t used them but you could try. They may not need to be squeezed dry, and they should probably be pulsed in a processor to make sure you can form them into patties.
Shawnie
I have made this using coral tooth mushrooms and it was great.
Alan Bergo
Oh those are my favorite type!