Spam Musubi
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- 2tablespoons soy sauce
- 2tablespoons light brown sugar
- ½teaspooon mirin (optional)
- 1 to 2teaspoons neutral oil, like canola or vegetable
- 1(12-ounce) can Spam, cut horizontally into 8 slices
- 3sheets roasted sushi nori, cut into thirds crosswise
- 2teaspoons furikake
- 5 to 6cups cooked short-grain white rice
Preparation
- Step 1
In a small bowl, whisk the soy sauce, sugar and mirin (if using). Set aside.
- Step 2
Lightly coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and heat over medium. Fry the Spam slices until evenly browned and crispy, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Turn off the heat. Working quickly to avoid burning, add the soy mixture and turn the Spam slices until evenly coated in glaze. Immediately transfer the Spam slices and glaze to a plate.
- Step 3
To mold the musubi, start by placing a strip of nori, rough side up, on a cutting board or clean work surface. Place a Spam musubi maker mold over it, in the middle, then place a slice of Spam into the mold. (If you don’t have a mold, you can line a clean Spam can with plastic wrap instead, and place a slice of Spam at the bottom.) Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon furikake over the Spam, then fill the mold or can with a generous mound of rice. Press the rice firmly with the musubi maker press or with your hands until it is ¾- to 1-inch thick, adding more rice as needed.
- Step 4
Use the press to hold the rice down with one hand and pull the mold upward to unmold the musubi with your other hand. (If you’re using the Spam can, gently lift the Spam and rice out of the can by gently pulling on both sides of the plastic wrap.) Wrap the nori around the Spam-rice stack, bringing both ends of the strip to the middle, folding one over the other, and flipping it over so the seam is down and the Spam is facing up. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serve immediately or wrap with plastic wrap to take with you on the go.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Maggie
My in-laws from Hawai'i taught me how to make Spam musubi and it is one of my guilty pleasures. To avoid the guilt, don't read the Spam nutrition info. Two helpful hints--yes, use sticky rice, keep it warm as you make the musubi (this helps the nori mold to the rice), and run a wet finger along the nori bottom seam line before you press the seam together --this keeps the nori seam from breaking open. When the guilt hits too hard, I make Spam-less musubi using tofu instead. It'll do. Sometimes.
Peter
You no have Rice Cooker Brah?
Chris L
This recipe is definitely lacking an important step. It needs to have the rice seasoned. About 2 T. Rice vinegar, 1 t. sugar, and salt to taste for a cup of uncooked rice. Remember the salt in the spam and soy sauce is also there. You'll be glad you did.
vivace
The authentic old skool Spam musubi of my local Hawaii kid days doesn’t have seasoned rice. You need traditional plain white sticky rice to balance the saltiness and seasoning of the Spam. If you use good Asian short grain white rice that is the staple of local Hawaii food, it has a good flavor. It should NOT be vinegary like sushi rice, not fragrant like basmati or jasmine rice, and should not taste like grain like American long grain rice. The most you should add to the rice is furikake.
cre8
What I do after I slice the Spam is put it in boiling water for 5 minutes to get rid of some fat and salt. Then pat dry with paper towels and proceed with the recipe. I even find the low sodium Spam too salty for my taste. The Nijia market in Gardena, CA has a booth where Spam musubi is sold for about $1.50--definitely worth it.
omusubi
Please, please do not season your rice. If you were making sushi, yes, season to your heart's content. But spam mus does not need something competing with the spam for flavor: it is powerfully salty, fatty, and sweet (when glazed). The rice should be counter-balancing this, not attempting to add on. In my experience, other musubi/onigiri do not have the rice seasoned with vinegar or mirin. At most they have salt but often not even that.
Vicki Claudio
I just made this and it was great! For the rice, I used 2 cups short grain rice + 2 cups water, cooked it on the stovetop for 20 minutes. Took it off the heat and left it covered for 10 minutes, then added 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and fluffed it up. I made the glaze as in the recipe except that I swapped non-soy soy sauce (as my son is allergic to soy). We used the Spam can for a mold and it worked perfectly. Also made homemade furikake leaving out the MSG.
Janet H.
I read notes about the rice, and did think the plain, totally-unseasoned rice sounded odd for a NY Times recipe, but I had faith and cooked it as written. The rice was as expected - tasteless and bland no matter how much I reglazed the finished spam in desperation. Very strange that the recipie author would not at the very least add some salt to the rice. Made it again for my partner, using the suggestions from others: salt, rice vinegar, sugar. That did it! Thanks, all, for the tips.
PaulM
I wonder if the "original" carbonara was made with spam. There is general agreement that the dish originated in Rome during the US occupation in 1944/45 and who had guanciale then? But, there was spam.
Michael R
What is we have no idea how to properly cook sushi rice? How sticky should it be? How moist? Is it seasoned during cooking? Seems like a major step to omit in the recipe.
Mike
7-11 has the best spam musubi. You won't be disappointed! Good snack to bring on plane home.
Japanese Hawaiian
I use sesame oil instead of regular oil to add a bit of aroma
Carly
This will be done this weekend - and reading the ingredients is what my local Hawaiian place uses - so I have every confidence this will be excellent! I'll update, though, with my terrible attempts at wrapping.
Kevin
Always popular with the kids and their friends. I use more furikake than listed—probably double or triple. Also, I put the nori sheet down whole, with two spams in, then cut after rolling which seems easier for me.
Mai C.
In Hawaii we do not season the rice with salt, salt or vinegars as others have complained about on these comments. The flavor of the seasoned spam and furikake has always been more than enough.
Brandy
We have made this recipe over a dozen times (exactly as written, using sushi rice made in the rice cooker) and it is so good, my son once wrote a song about it to wake my husband to, so he wouldn't miss Mom's Spam Musubi. We ordered the Spam version of the musubi mold from their site and it is cheap and works perfectly.
Sarah N.
My wife and I went out for Hawai'ian barbecue for lunch and had delicious Spam musubi. "How hard can be it be to make??" We made it exactly as written here (using the spam can as a mold) and it was just like what we had at the restaurant. Super easy. One COULD season the rice, one COULD soak the spam to make it less salty, one COULD add whatever else one wished... but one does not have to do these things to make it turn out great.
Carol
I live on Hawai'i Island and can say for sure that this is delicious and authentic. I'd just add one optional step for those of us who live in an extremely humid climate: if your nori needs it, toast it for a second or two over a low flame on the stove before you assemble the musubi. It's really fast and it improves the texture.
MrsBeee
Just made this, and my raised in Hawaii, musubi loving husband gave it a chef's kiss. (I did lightly season the rice, a controversial move, apparently.)
Michael
This is my go-to work lunch to take to the job site. I simplify it by making a spam musubi "bowl" instead of a roll, but the flavors are still the same, and it is my favorite part of my day. However, I recently read that processed meat is very bad for you, so I think I am going to stop making this.
Greg Hastings
We don’t use a mold. Instead we use plastic wrap. We use 1/2 sheet of nori, mound the rice, place the spam, fold the nori around and use the shape of the spam and nori to make a neat shape. The steam makes the nori meld together. Bonus: easy to throw in a lunch bag or carry as a snack.
BA
We add a little spice in my house, a little Gochujang goes a long way!
kw
Made it and it hit the spot. It was a tad too salty even tho I used low sodium SPAM and low sodium soy sauce. I’ll try the other commenter’s advice of dunking the spam in boiling water to leach out some salt before frying. Spam can as a mold was a great hack but I didn’t do it very well so I resorted to smushing oblong globs of rice between my palms.
Cameron
This was very tasty. I followed recipe faithfully and did not season the rice as some commenters are recommending. Maybe next time I'll try that, but its pretty darn tasty as it is. What a scrumptious lunch!
Victoria
Read most of the cooking notes to get a sense of the recipe, which we found helpful. We did not read the nutrition information on the Spam can, but knew enough to reduce the soy sauce in the glaze--a good idea. Did not season the sushi rice at all; and added a layer of chili crisp to half of the batch (yum!) Using the Spam can as a mold worked perfectly, too. Will make again, so long as we bookend our Musubi night with a week of salads on both sides. ;)
Lianne
This recipe is perfect. A big no to seasoned rice and a big yes to unsalted sticky rice. The savoryness of the glazed spam and furikake offer more than enough flavor. Made these for lunch today and am currently basking in the contentment that comes from treating oneself to comfort food.
EllieNYC
Mixed scallion and sesame seeds to the cooked rice rice and it added an extra pop of flavor.
Rosemash
I reduced the Soy sauce to 1.5 tbsp and increased the mirin to 1 teaspoon. It really balanced out the saltiness of the spam much better
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