How to Make Sushi at Home: Rice, Rolling Technique and Fish Safety

From Edo Street Food to a Global Dish

Nigiri-zushi, the hand-pressed style most people picture when they hear "sushi," is credited to Yohei Hanaya, who ran a sushi shop in the Ryogoku district of Edo — present-day Tokyo — according to Tokyo's official tourism and gourmet site. He combined vinegared rice with fresh fish as a quick meal for the city's busy townspeople, more than 200 years ago.

The style took its name, Edomae, from the bay at the entrance to Edo that supplied the fish. Because refrigeration did not exist, cooks of the period developed preservation methods that are still used today: zuke, marinating fish such as tuna in a soy-based sauce; shime, curing silver-skinned fish with salt and vinegar; and nitsuke, simmering seafood to concentrate its flavor, the site explains.

Core Ingredients

• Japanese short-grain white rice
• Unseasoned rice vinegar, sugar and salt (for the seasoning)
• Nori (roasted seaweed sheets)
• Sashimi-grade fish — maguro (tuna), toro, hamachi (yellowtail), sake (salmon), unagi (eel), ebi (shrimp), hotate (scallop) or uni
• Soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger (gari) as accompaniments

Short-grain rice and its vinegar seasoning are the ingredient that defines sushi, more than any raw fish on top — the Japanese home-cooking site Just One Cookbook describes sushi rice as the dish's single most essential component.

How to Make Sushi Rice (Shari)

1. Rinse 1½ cups of Japanese short-grain white rice until the rinse water runs clear, then drain well.
2. Soak the rinsed rice in 1½ cups of water, with a piece of kombu if desired, for 20–30 minutes before cooking.
3. Cook the rice — a rice cooker's dedicated sushi setting works for this.
4. While the rice cooks, heat 4 tablespoons of unseasoned rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt together until the sugar dissolves and the mixture nearly simmers, then let it cool.
5. Transfer the hot cooked rice to a moistened wooden tub (hangiri) if you have one, pour over the vinegar mixture, and hold the rice paddle at a 45-degree angle to slice through the rice — slicing separates clumps, while stirring crushes the grains into paste.
6. Fan the rice as you work to help it cool, then keep it covered with a damp towel until it is used.

How to Roll Maki Sushi

1. Lay a bamboo mat flat and place a nori sheet, cut in half, shiny side down, along its bottom edge.
2. Moisten your hands with tezu — a mix of water and rice vinegar — and spread about ½ cup (80 g) of seasoned rice evenly over the nori, leaving roughly a 1-inch strip bare at the top.
3. Lay a single filling, such as sashimi-grade tuna, cucumber or natto, across the middle of the rice.
4. Starting from the bottom edge, roll the mat and nori over the filling in one swift movement.
5. Gently tighten and shape the roll through the mat, then press to seal the bare strip of nori.
6. Wet the knife blade, then push and pull it through the roll to cut it into six even pieces.

Common Sushi Styles

Raw Fish: What Food-Safety Rules Require

Fish meant to be eaten raw or undercooked — including for sushi and sashimi — must first be frozen to destroy parasites, under guidance based on the U.S. FDA Food Code and summarized by the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. The approved methods are freezing and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for seven days; freezing solid at -31°F (-35°C) or below and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours; or freezing solid at -31°F (-35°C) or below and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours.

The same guidance lists exemptions from the freezing requirement, including Atlantic, bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tuna, molluscan shellfish, fish eggs, aquacultured fish, and scallop adductor muscle. The exemptions reflect the lower parasite risk in these species rather than an absence of other food-safety rules, according to the health district's summary.

Serving and Eating Sushi

• Maki and nigiri are traditionally eaten with the fingers, though chopsticks are acceptable, according to Just One Cookbook's sushi guide.
• Soy sauce is meant to be dipped onto the fish side of nigiri only, not onto the rice, to keep the roll from falling apart.
• Wasabi is not stirred into the soy sauce; it is applied directly when the chef has not already added it.
• Each piece is meant to be eaten in a single bite so that the rice, fish and seasoning are tasted together.