To make sushi rice at home, weigh Japanese short-grain rice, wash it until the water is only faintly cloudy, drain it, soak it, and cook it with 1.1 times its weight in water. Then fold in a warm-dissolved mix of rice vinegar, sugar and salt while the rice is still hot, fanning it as you go, until it cools to body temperature. That is the whole method. Every step matters, though, and most home sushi rice goes wrong in one of three places: the wrong rice, too much water, or stirring when you should be folding.
Below is the method in full, with quantities for 300 g of dry rice. That makes about 660 g of seasoned rice, enough for roughly 35 pieces of nigiri or about eight thin rolls.
Start with the right rice
Sushi needs Japanese short-grain rice, often sold as "sushi rice". Short-grain rice is high in amylopectin, the sticky starch, so the cooked grains cling together while staying separate. That is what lets a piece of nigiri hold when you pick it up and then fall apart in your mouth. Long-grain rice such as basmati or jasmine won't hold together at all. Risotto rice turns to porridge, and glutinous (sweet) rice is far too sticky.
Koshihikari and its Californian-grown cousins are excellent and widely available. Korean short-grain rice behaves in much the same way and is often good value. Buy only what you'll use within a couple of months, because old rice cooks unevenly.
Weigh, don't scoop. Volume measures of rice can vary a lot depending on how you fill the cup. A digital scale takes the guesswork out of the water ratio, and the water ratio decides everything.
Washing, draining and soaking
Washing removes loose surface starch, which would otherwise make the rice gluey. Soaking lets the water reach the centre of each grain so it cooks evenly.
- Weigh 300 g of rice into a large bowl.
- First rinse, fast. Cover with cold water, swirl a few times and pour it off within about fifteen seconds. Dry rice drinks up that first cloudy water quickly.
- Rub gently. Add fresh water, make a claw with your fingers and rub the grains against each other for ten or fifteen circles. Pour off.
- Repeat four or five times until the water is almost clear. Faintly hazy is right. Crystal-clear water means you've washed off starch the rice needs to stick.
- Drain in a sieve for 15–30 minutes. The grains turn from shiny to matt and slightly chalky.
- Soak for 30 minutes in the pan with 330 ml of cold water, until the grains are opaque white all the way through.
Cooking on the hob (or in a rice cooker)
The water is 1.1 times the weight of the dry rice: 330 ml for 300 g. New-crop rice holds more moisture and needs a little less water. Pre-washed rice (musenmai) needs a little more. A small square of kombu in the soaking water adds a quiet savouriness. Take it out before the pan boils.
- Bring to the boil with the lid on over medium-high heat, which takes about 5 minutes. You'll see steam escaping steadily at the rim.
- Simmer on the lowest heat for 12 minutes. Don't lift the lid. Every peek lets out the steam that cooks the top layer.
- Rest off the heat for 10–15 minutes, still covered. A folded tea towel under the lid catches condensation. This is when the grains firm up, so don't skip it.
A rice cooker works very well. Use the washed, drained rice, fill to the cooker's own line for sushi or white rice, and keep the soak. Many cookers have a sushi setting that uses a little less water.
Sushi-zu: the seasoning
While the rice rests, make the sushi-zu. Work out the proportions from the weight of the cooked rice. An all-purpose balance is 10% rice vinegar, 4% sugar and 1% fine salt. For 660 g of cooked rice, that's:
- 66 ml plain (unseasoned) rice vinegar
- 26 g caster sugar
- 6.5 g fine sea salt
Warm them gently in a small pan just until the sugar and salt dissolve, then take it off the heat. Don't boil it, because that drives off the vinegar's aroma. Buy plain rice vinegar rather than pre-seasoned "sushi vinegar", which is usually quite sweet and takes away the one adjustment that makes the rice yours.
| Style | Vinegar | Sugar | Salt | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo (Edomae) | 10% | 1–2% | 1% | Sharp and savoury, good with cured and oily fish |
| All-purpose | 10% | 4% | 1% | Balanced. Start here |
| Osaka (Kansai) | 10% | 6–8% | 1.2% | Sweeter and softer, suited to pressed sushi |
The Art of Sushi has a Sushi-zu recipe for a make-ahead batch and a Sushi-zu Variations page covering each regional style, including red-vinegar rice.
Seasoning the rice: cut, fold, fan
This is the step that decides the texture. Everything happens quickly and without stopping, so have the seasoning, a paddle and a fan ready before the rice comes off the heat.
- Prepare a wide, shallow, non-metal tub. A wooden hangiri is traditional, but a large glass or ceramic dish works. Wet it and wipe out the excess. Avoid metal, which reacts with the vinegar.
- Turn out the hot rice in one go and spread it roughly level.
- Pour the sushi-zu over the back of the paddle held just above the rice, so it scatters rather than pooling in one spot.
- Cut and fold. Hold the paddle like a knife, slice down through the rice at an angle, then lift and turn a section over. Work across the tub, turn it and repeat.
- Fan as you fold with your other hand, or get someone to help. A piece of card does the job. Fanning drives off steam, which gives the grains their gloss.
- Stop at body temperature, after about five minutes. The rice should feel neither warm nor cool against the inside of your wrist, around 36–37 °C. Cover it with a damp cloth straight away.
The rice must still be hot when the vinegar goes on, or it won't absorb the seasoning. And never stir. Stirring crushes the grains into paste.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Mushy and clumped: too much water, or it was stirred. Cut the water by about 20 ml next time and only cut and fold.
- Hard, chalky centres: it wasn't soaked or wasn't rested. Neither step can be shortened.
- Dull and dry: it was fanned too hard or left uncovered. Cover it the moment you stop working it.
- Flat taste: it's under-seasoned, or the vinegar went on after the rice had cooled.
- Too sour: bring the vinegar down a little or the sugar up by a percentage point. Your own taste is the final judge.
Keeping and using sushi rice
Sushi rice is best used the day it's made, ideally within a couple of hours. Keep it covered with a damp cloth at room temperature and use it within about six hours. Don't refrigerate it. Cold turns the starch hard and chalky. Once the rice is topped with raw fish, treat the finished sushi as a chilled food: serve it straight away and don't leave it standing around.
Once the rice is right, everything else gets easier. Our beginner's guide to nigiri, maki and temaki picks up where this leaves off, and the guide to buying fish for sushi at home covers the other half of the job. For simpler ways to use a batch, Tekka Don and Edomae Chirashi in The Art of Sushi are both scattered bowls of seasoned rice with no shaping needed. You can also browse every rice-based dish in the recipe finder.
Questions people ask
Can I make sushi rice with ordinary long-grain rice?
Not successfully. Long-grain rice doesn't have enough of the sticky starch, so it won't hold a shape. Use Japanese or Korean short-grain rice. Italian Originario will do at a pinch.
Can I make sushi rice the day before?
No. Refrigerated sushi rice goes hard and dry, and reheating doesn't bring it back. Make the rice on the day. You can make the sushi-zu well ahead, though: it keeps for weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge.
Do I need a hangiri?
No. A wide glass, ceramic or wooden dish works. A hangiri helps because the wood soaks up excess moisture and the wide shape lets steam escape quickly, but it isn't essential when you're starting out.
How much rice do I need per person?
As a guide, 75–100 g of dry rice per person for a sushi meal. One piece of nigiri uses about 15–18 g of seasoned rice, and a thin roll uses around 80 g.