Sushi: A Timeless Classic
Sushi goes back far into the early Edo period. Vinegar was used to preserve the fish before refrigeration was available, and rice was used to absorb the excess liquid (much like the common strategy of placing your wet cellphone in rice). Therefore, traditional sushi was made using fish that preserved well using this method, mainly the lean parts of tuna and yellowtail. Fattier fish and parts of the tuna, like O-Toro, were not suited to this process and was therefore thrown out most of the time. This really shows how far sushi has evolved, as O-Toro is now one of the most desired cuts of sushi one can get. It is a similar story with Salmon, it did not become a sushi fish until around some 20-odd years ago. Why then did we decide to go with salmon for our re-creation? Well, because it was the only fish we could get our hands on that would serve both of our re-creation projects. It would not be feasible to order an entire Tuna for the purposes of the cutting ceremony, and we could not find any whole yellowtail fish. Salmon then, was the only thing really left for us to use. However, for a first attempt at re-creation I would say that it was a good thing that we ended up going with salmon. Out of the three, salmon is the one I personally have more experience making into sushi and eating. I’ve only had tuna as sushi maybe once, and I have not had yellowtail. I have, however, both have eaten and made salmon sushi several times, so I have a baseline that I can reference for the purposes of this re-creation.
I have discussed the history of sushi loosely, and will now go into more detail. The first ever of the forms that exist today is called Nigiri, and was originally a finger food for construction workers that could be eaten quickly, while standing, and be full of carbs from the rice for energy and nutrients from the fish. Nowadays I don’t think you will ever see a construction worker opening up their lunch box and eating nigiri, however many business men in Japan frequent sushi restaurants during lunch time and eat freshly made nigiri while standing, so this tradition has been mostly preserved. The other form of sushi I will be recreating will be salmon rolls, or “maki”. Although rolls are not as traditional as nigiri, they are a staple in sushi and what most people think of alongside of nigiri when they think of sushi. The other of the three forms, Sashimi, I will not be recreating, as it involves no rice and no preparation outside of cutting and arranging on a plate. Furthermore, sashimi is often a way of tasting the quality of the fish and how it has been affected by different marinades, which we actually did when comparing the salmon that was kept in vinegar to the salmon that was refrigerated. Upon tasting it we found that it had surprisingly become flakey and salty, much like the consistency of dry canned tuna. Because of this unexpected result, rather than waste this portion of salmon, I decided to make a salmon onigiri, which I found out that apparently samurai used to eat. I did not make it in the traditional style, however, as I was not aware of it until after I had done the re-creation.
An example of more traditional-style onigiri, the complete coverage of the Nori served as an edible pre-modern plastic wrap to keep the contents intact and free from exposure.
Screenshot from the “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” Documentary
The first step of the recreation involves cooking the rice. Although cooking it in a pot over a gas stove might’ve been more faithful to the recreation, I know from prior experience that it is not possible to cook rice in this way without burning the bottom layer of rice, as even the lowest heat setting is too high. On an electric stovetop however, I have had great results cooking rice, but i no longer have access to it. Furthermore, I learned from watching the “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” documentary that a lot of pressure on top of the steaming rice is key for great sushi rice. Because a rice cooker has a pressurizing seal on it and will not burn the bottom layer of rice, I decided to go with it. I also think it is worth noting how the rice cooker has become what it is now through knowledge like this, it is one of those things you never really think about until you have prior experience.
The first step in preparing the rice is actually choosing the right rice. Commonly, there are 3 different sizes of rice which are long grain, medium grain, and short grain rice. Japanese rice is usually short-grain, which also happens to be the stickiest of the 3. This is not all there is to it however, as there are multiple different types of harvests, locations, and methods that all result in slightly different rices. An example of this can be seen in comparing Koshikikari to Hitomebore, two rices that work well for sushi that I have experience using. Although you can see the difference in the grains, what really stands out to me is the tactile difference between the two that is especially felt during the washing process, with Koshikikari grains running a lot smoother through the fingers and clumping together less. When picking a rice for sushi, you generally want to keep it to short-grain as that results in the stickiest rice, however you can make do with medium-gran rice if you are unable to get short-grain. For our re-creation, we used medium grain rice because we had both assumed it was short-grain rice since it was Japanese. I only found out that it was medium grain during the washing process due to my tacit knowledge with short-grain rice and how it feels washing it and at that point it was too late. The next step then is naturally; washing the rice. Although it is an obvious first step to anyone from east Asia or that has experience with the culture, many Americans and Europeans are not aware of this. In the past, rice was washed to remove dirt and other contaminated that could arise from it being stored in hemp or straw sacks. Although the rice you buy at the store now is mostly free from these, you still need to wash the rice to remove the excess starch or the rice wont be as sticky. You rinse the rice and drain it until the water is no longer cloudy (it gets cloudy from the starch). Traditionally this would be done in any bowl-like container and be strained out every time, however the container i am using greatly expedites the process. Once you are done washing the rice, you transfer it to the rice cooker bowl with 1:1 parts water (i.e. 1 cup water for 1 cup rice). At least that’s what it says in the “Sushi Master” book, however there are so many different things you can do with the rice and I was genuinely surprised with how little detail was payed to the rice in this book. Even in the “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” documentary there was not much said about rice, although in their defense each restaurant has their own special rice recipe so it would make sense to not go into detail. I could explain all the different things that could be done to rice and how it would affect it, but that would be outside the scope of this recreation for the time being. And I would like to add that this is only what can be done BEFORE you start to cook it, there is so much more that can be done both during and after.
After you place the rice in the rice cooker you press the button to start and let it do its thing. After you hear the beeping noise indicating its finished, you allow it to steam for 10 minutes before finally opening the lid. After this is when the adding the sushi vinegar part begins, and it is important to do this is quickly as possible so that the rice can absorb the vinegar while its still hot. Although the “Sushi Master” book tells us to use any flat bowl or even a baking tray, the traditional way is to use a wooden bowl called a hangiri. The wood absorbs the excess vinegar so that it doesn’t pool and soak the rice and turn it into a mushy paste. Furthermore, there is a lot of technique involved in actually mixing the rice and vinegar, which is unfortunately hard to see from the angle of the video. A fan is also used here to bring the rice down to body temperature faster so that it doesn’t leak back out of the rice. A moist towel is then placed over the top and the rice is ready to be used. https://youtube.com/shorts/Yh-1G12P7go?feature=share
Brushing the sauce on the Nigiri
With the rice done, its time to make some sushi! I started off with the Nigiri, and used the instructions in the" “Sushi Master” book, which actually proved quite helpful because of the pictures for every step of the process. I will say however that there was one point of confusion pertaining to the application of the wasabi. I managed to work it out in the end however, and this is how that process looks like. Although it doesn’t say to brush it with soy sauce in the “Sushi Master” book, it is something i saw in the “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” documentary and so decided to add it here. Nigiri is meant to be eaten as soon as it is prepared and proper etiquette holds that you NOT separate the fish from the rice nor dunk it in the soy sauce as doing so disrupts the balance of flavors the chef has crafted. As an aside I would like to note that true wasabi is really hard to get in the states and most of what you find is mostly horse radish, however this “hon wasabi” we are using claims to be more parts wasabi than horse radish. https://youtube.com/shorts/H0y8MuWPyCY?feature=share
Moving on to the next form of sushi, the “maki” or rolls. Although maki can be made with all kinds of ingredients and different styles, I decided to keep it simple and use salmon only for the purposes of this re-creation. In order to actually “roll” the rolls, you need a bamboo mat. You also need “nori” or roasted seaweed, and some water to keep the rice from sticking to your fingers. I will say that knowing what to do with the mat takes more tacit knowledge that even pictures cannot really help convey. After you finish rolling them, you want to let them sit for a while so they can “set” and hold their shape for when you go for the cut. When cutting, you want to trim the edges so they look more presentable, then cut in half and then cut those halves into 3 equal pieces for a total of 6. The pieces of salmon were a bit too small so it messed with the measurements a bit and that is why we only have 4 pieces instead of the 6. https://youtube.com/shorts/A6kJD2J19Rs?feature=share
With the rolls done its time to move on to the Onigiri. Traditionally, the ones the samurai ate were flatter and more triangle like, resembling a sort of seaweed crepe. I did not know about this however, and decided to go with the shape that most of us know. For the Onigiri, you do not use sushi rice but instead normal white rice, which we separated from the other rice before adding the sushi vinegar. Also traditionally when making onigiri, you keep a pinch of salt handy to add salt to the onigiri while making it, but since the salmon left marinating in the vinegar was plenty salty enough we decided it didn’t need it. Here’s what the forming of Onigiri looks like.
Now that all the food items are assembled, its time to plate! When plating sushi, you can creative and arrange according to size and shape of the container and pieces of sushi. Typically, Nigiri is not plated as it is meant to be eaten immediately after being made, but we decided to plate it anyway. A key element is the “garu” or pickled ginger that is used as a palate cleanser in between different fish.
And that’s a wrap! As for the taste, it all tasted pretty good! Most surprising was that the vinegar-ed salmon was actually edible after being turned into onigiri, where I had to spit it out tasting it as nigiri. If I were to attempt this recreation again, i would definitely dilute the vinegar solution as well as not stack pieces in the container as that resulted in the center of some pieces being untouched by the vinegar. I would also do this with tuna instead of salmon as that is a much more traditional cut with much more variety in the different parts as well as being more suited to the vinegar process. I would also use short-grain rice instead of medium grain, but would probably keep the rest of the things the same. If you’d like to see the fish cutting ceremony that yielded the cuts you see here, click here: https://bluebird-arugula-lahc.squarespace.com/rework-project/hochoshiki