Sushi vinegar is an essential ingredient when making sushi rice. However, many people tend to make big mistakes when cooking rice with it.
First, let’s go over the basics. To make sushi vinegar, all you need is salt, sugar, and vinegar. The steps to make the vinegar are very simple. Here is a quick recipe for you to make a standard mix for 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs) of uncooked rice.
1) Thoroughly mix 100 mL (3.4 fl oz) rice vinegar, 100 g (3.5 oz) sugar, and 20 g (0.7 oz) salt in a pan.
2) Leave it for a while to dissolve sugar and salt. Alternatively, you can heat it up, but not higher than 50°C (122°F). Otherwise, it will lose the sourness of the vinegar. So, no boiling!
3) When the sugar and salt are completely dissolved, remove the mixture from the heat, add more rice vinegar (100 mL or 3.4 fl oz) and place in a container and let it cool down. (Cooled sushi vinegar mixes better with rice than the hot one.)
Now, keep the basics in mind. Let’s see what mistakes you may be making.
Mistake #1: Picking Sushi Vinegar Recipe
You might think that there is one perfect recipe for a sushi vinegar mix that everybody loves. Well, that is not true! There are many variations for various preferences and purposes.
Here are some tips on which recipe best suits your purpose.
Frozen Fish vs. Fresh Fish
Frozen fish often has a strong fishy taste than fresh fish. A strong-taste (more vinegar & salt) sushi vinegar mix or sweet-taste (more sugar) mix is more suited if you are making sushi out of frozen fish. On the other hand, when you are using fresh fish, a light-taste (less salt & sugar) sushi vinegar mix highlights the delicate taste of the fresh fish.
Traditional Style
There is another recipe called Edo-mae (Traditional-Tokyo) style, which has red vinegar. Regular rice vinegar, made from Japanese rice, has an unmistakable sour taste. On the other hand, red vinegar made from Sake-kasu, the residue from the sake production process, is abundant in umami, making sushi rice even tastier.
But, due to the unique flavor of red vinegar, we often mix red vinegar with regular rice vinegar to soften the flavor of making sushi rice. (You can find the ratio of red vinegar to rice vinegar in the link below.)
Mistake #2: Sushi Vinegar to Rice Ratio
The second common mistake is to add too much sushi vinegar to the rice. If you make this mistake, the rice gets too watery and doesn’t stick properly anymore. So, it becomes hard to make a good shape for rolls or nigiri.
If you do not know how much vinegar to add, check the right amount by using this link.
The chart indicates the exact amount of sushi vinegar you should add to the weight of the rice you cooked. Input the amount of rice in grams in the yellow cell, and the amount of each ingredient needed will show up automatically.
Mistake #3: Using Soft Rice
Another common mistake that we often encounter is that people cook rice too soft for sushi rice. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. When making sushi rice, you will mix the cooked rice with a liquid, sushi vinegar. That means the rice needs to be cooked somewhat firm. If you cooked the rice with the usual amount of water, the rice would come out too soft.
Best “Rice: Water Ratio” for Sushi Rice
So, when cooking rice for sushi, the ideal ratio of rice (pre-washed) to water is 1: 1 (or 1: 1.1) in volume (not in weight). That means, if you cook a cup of rice, you cook it with a (same) cup of water.
When you cook the rice this way, you may find it a bit firm, but that is perfect for sushi rice.
Kombu Seaweed or Not?
We often get a question about adding kombu to the sushi rice. Is it necessary to add kombu to the sushi vinegar or cooking rice? Well, the answer is no and yes.
It is not necessary. Many top sushi restaurants don’t use kombu seaweed in the sushi rice. However, because the sweetness of the sushi rice fades away over time, some restaurants add kombu to the recipe to compensate for the sweetness.
Furthermore, some restaurants use kombu for sushi rice if the rice is missing its flavor. However, the basic recipe is just salt, sugar, and vinegar, and that is all you need.
Master Sushi Rice Making
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