[Alex3917]

> Pretty sure they're targeting a very specific audience here.

Probably accurate. Growing edible mushrooms on such a small scale doesn't make any sense given that they are 90% water, and so shrink ~90% when you cook them. This would be like buying an AeroGarden that can grow only a single leaf of parsley.

E.g. it takes at least 10 lbs of lions mane to make crab cakes for two people, whereas I doubt this thing is going to produce more than half a pound.

[skyyler]

What makes you think it takes 10lbs of lions mane to make two servings of crab cakes? This recipe uses 6oz and claims to make four: https://steamykitchen.com/192632-lions-mane-crab-cake-recipe...

[Alex3917]

Because that's a fake recipe that was written just to rack up page views, that wouldn't actually work at all if you tried it. Making crab cakes isn't going to work at all unless you sweat the mushrooms to get the water out -- you cook them for 20+ min on low with a lot of sea salt, and then you rinse off the salt and squeeze out as much water as you can before forming them into crab cakes and pan frying.

[skyyler]

https://foragerchef.com/hericium-crabcakes/

Okay, is this one better? It still only calls for 16oz of mushrooms to make 4-6 cakes.

I can't find a single recipe that calls for anywhere near 10lbs of fungus. Could you link one?

[Alex3917]

If you look at the different photos in that recipe, you can see that the one on the tree has several times more water than the one purchased from the store. So which '16 oz' is it even referring to?

[skyyler]

This still isn't addressing your hyperbolic statement. And now I feel you don't wish to address that. And that's okay.

[Alex3917]

I'm just going from memory. The last time I found them I harvested an entire tree worth, and that was enough to feed two people for two nights. I think I filled up a Baggu and a half worth, and each of those holds at least 15 lbs of mushrooms.

[idiotsecant]

10lb of lions mane would make an absolutely enormous amount of crab cake meat. Even if you figure you can sweat 60% of the moisture out of your mushrooms (which you probably won't, but let's assume that) that's still 4lb of 'crab' for 2 people. Most crab cake recipes call for 1 lb of crab for about 6-8 patties. Mushrooms might be a little bit less dense, but not that much less dense.

[bluedino]

Good thing it only takes about 1/8th of an ounce (dried) to trip balls.

[scoot]

That would be dried mushrooms. No thanks!