How to Cut Sushi Like a Boss: The Secrets Behind Making Sushi

If you are reading this, we assume that it is because you either love to cook, or you just love sushi and want to know how to cut sushi yourself as eating out every night is probably not a wise economic decision. If you are just a consumer of sushi, the chances are that you are unaware of the sushi process or its history. Such is also essential to know so that you will have an idea why the food is cut in a particular manner.

Sushi is a Japanese dish that seems easy to make because of its simplicity. However, before you get a wild hair and decide that you want to make your own sushi, there are a few basic things you should understand like what it is, how it is prepared and what is used in its preparation in terms of ingredients and tools.

For general information and as a rule of thumb, if you were to prepare sushi at home, you should not keep it in your fridge for more than a twenty-four hour period. Even having it for two days might be a bit of a stretch.

Making Sushi

Basically, sushi is a dish of flavored rice that can be served with vegetable or raw seafood. The fresh seafood will include marine species like shrimp, tuna, mackerel, halibut, albacore and yellowtail fish. If you were uncertain, now you are sure of what it is.

There are actually different types of sushi like nigiri-zushi, tekkamaki, kappamaki, inari-zushi, and norimaki. These cater for a variety of tastes and some are even vegetarian. Even so, the technique used and the rules in making sushi will always be the same.

• The Right Tools

The art of sushi making comes down really to using the right tools. If you want to cut the fish, then you need to have a knife with a really thin blade. The knife should be able to cut your fish without destroying the meat.

Usually, Sashimi knives are used to cut sushi and fish since they have a sharp edge and are able to slice fish thinly. Some not only have a sharp blade but the blade tends to be thin and pointed. Apart from having a quality sushi knife, you should also have a roller, and it will be best to have a sushi-making set of knives.

• The Right Fish

Since you want to cut sushi like a professional, you need to get the right fish along with the right tools. You will be eating raw fish, so it is crucial that you buy a fish that is frozen as the freezing temperatures would help kill bacteria and parasites that could cause you sickness. The fish that you chose should be fresh, and its eyes should be clear and not cloudy. To ensure that the fish is fresh, hold it up since fresh fish stay straight and older fish flop.

• The Process

To make sushi, the fish is cut into blocks and then further into thin slices at a specific angle and thickness. Assuming that your rice has already been prepared, some people will spread the rice on a Nori (seaweed) that is lying on top of a sushi maker (a roller) and then place the cut fish on top of it. Once everything is layered, it is then rolled and cut.

How to Cut Sushi: A Helpful Guide

Assuming that you have the fish, preferably tuna, you should know how to identify the different parts of the fish namely the belly or toro and the red meat area. The less lean areas are preferred because they have a high amount of fat.

The Steps

1. Cut off the triangular tip and then cut the tuna into blocks of Saku for the sushi. The head, tail, and fins are not to be included in the cutting process. The blocks of tuna will be shaped differently.
2. After which, remove the tendons and skin from the fish. If you are unfamiliar, the tendons are white items and go to the skin of the tuna.
3. Now that you have your blocks, you have to cut the fish into even thinner slices, which is about quarter of an inch, in a direction that is against the grain and at a thirty-degree angle. You should always pull your knife backward when slicing the fish.

Some Important Notes

Deciding how thick to cut may be a challenge because if the fish is cut too thin, then you will lose the flavor of the fish. Then at the same time, you don’t want your fish to be too thick since that will be a hassle when you decide to roll the cut fish.

A good idea will be to have two sizes, slices that are thick and slices that are thin. Once your fish and rice are prepared, you are ready to roll, and you can cut your nori into six pieces.

If you fail at cutting sushi, you shouldn’t give up trying because a constant practice is the best key to achieving the perfect cut of the fish. You can also choose to watch several video tutorials to have a more precise concept.

If you do not usually work in the kitchen, then ask someone who is to help and teach you. Sushi knives are very sharp, and you can injure yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing and have never used knives on fish before.

Final Words

We cannot emphasize too much that if you want to know how to cut sushi like a professional chef, you must first consider the things that you need to get which is a good knife with a really sharp blade. Sashimi knives can be inexpensive, and they can be expensive as well. If you are not going to make sushi regularly, then you should not invest in a knife that is too expensive. Nonetheless, you must still consider its quality.

Cutting fish to make sushi is a fun activity and the instructions are simple to follow. You just have to make sure that you understand how to do the proper angle and thickness. In addition, you should learn how to handle a sushi knife before even attempting to use it.