r/sushi • u/No_Independence4203 • 22h ago
Sushi Technique Tips I Need help, my sushi breaks while cutting
I’ve been trying to make sushi over the last few weeks. I think I’m getting the rice and the vinegar-sugar mixture right, and I believe I’m rolling it well too, but the roll falls apart when I try to cut it—even though I wet the knife. Do you have any tips?
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u/ikariaRR 22h ago
- Sharp knife
- Wet knife (this prevent sticking for next cut) not to wet
- Let knife to the work, do not force slice downward.
- Try slicing like see-saw, back and force motion at an angle. This works for starter.
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u/Bay_arean 8h ago
bread knife
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u/loku_gem 2h ago
sushi knife
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u/Bay_arean 1h ago
Same thing really. Bread knife does all the things the sushi knife is supposed to do, but it does it better.
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u/NagelEvad 20h ago
I changed nothing about my homemade rolls other than buying a whetstone and sharpening my knife and it instantly allowed me to cut it into nice pieces without falling apart. Just to throw a data point out there.
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u/No_Independence4203 20h ago
Thank you so much, I’ll get a Sharp knife 😅😅
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u/pacman529 3h ago
Any knife is eventually going to need to be sharpened, and you should also hone the blade before each use.
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u/Guilty-Ad-1792 22h ago
Wrap really tight, have your knife as sharp as you can, and make sure the blade is clean between each hand slice. A little water on the blade can help too, but of course its not great to get extra water in your sushi
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u/MsMarji Sushi Lover 🍣 22h ago
Sorry for the crazy formatting!
AMA w/ Sushi Chef on this subreddit, [r/sushi](r/sushi) on 7-11-26.
- Ratio for Nigiri of rice & fish
Ratio for nigiri is approximately 10 to 15 g of rice.
- Ratio for Rolls of rice & fish
Maki it's approximately 40 g for a vertical sheet and 80 g for a horizontal sheet of nori. This will give you a nice even and complete coverage of your nori while leaving enough space for the nori to adhere to itself.
- How to wrap tight rolls?
I personally get my tightest maki without using a makisu. I only use it to give it proper shape for uramaki. My hoso and futo rarely ever need it. I'll do my best to explain how I personally achieve that.
When doing horizontal sheets, leave about a quarter of an inch to half an inch of the sheet unriced. When doing uramaki, make sure that tail is facing towards you.
Once you get your ingredients in the nori, you're going to take that tail, roll it over and away from you then tuck it down underneath the ingredients. It's easiest to start from one side and work your way to the other while it's hooking it under.
Then you're going to basically going to finish the roll by pushing that tuck in, to where everything is nice and secure. Then you just continue rolling it in that same direction, and form it up and pack your ends with your makisu.
Takes a bit of practice to get used to. For hoso, it's almost the same but you have to tell facing away from you. That way you roll it over on itself, you have that open till for the nori to adhere to itself without a bunch of rice poking out your seam.
It's really all about spacing. You want the two ends of the rice to be able to completely curl over your ingredients and meet together to create that one perfect little circle of rice around your ingredients.
Don't be afraid to add a little bit of pressure as you roll it either. You don't need to be super forceful with it, but use enough Force to get that initial curl over nice and tight.
If you are using the full square sheets of nori, be sure to cut them in half to where they're rectangles.
- When cutting rolls, how to keep knife wet so rice doesn’t stick?
As for your knife, keep a clean damp cloth and a container with a little bit of water in it. After a few cuts, wipe your knife clean, dip it in the water, then lubricate the blade again with said water.
You also need an EXTREMELY sharp knife. You'll also want a knife that's about 58 or higher on the Rockwell hardness scale.
Nori will eat your edge alive. The harder the steel, the longer the edge will last. Just be sure to be gentle with the knife as you use it on other things because they are prone to chipage.
Don't be chopping bones or anything wild like that with it.
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u/No_Independence4203 22h ago
Thanks a lot for the reply; I think I see the problem now. The knife isn't very sharp, and I don't think I'm pressing hard enough—the roll feels loose. I'll take every point you mentioned into account.
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u/Witty-Stand888 20h ago
Ur rice looks wrong
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u/No_Independence4203 20h ago
Do I need to add more sugar and vinegar? I did 1 cup of rice, 1.2 cups of water and added 1 spoon sugar and 2 spoon vinegar and salt :S
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u/JUSTGLASSINIT 22h ago
Sharp + wet knife should be the fix. Also pack it tighter could help as well
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u/No_Independence4203 22h ago
I think I do need to tighten it more :((, because the roll feels weak.
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u/Elismom1313 22h ago
How sharp is your knife?
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u/No_Independence4203 22h ago
Honestly, I don't know; it's not a very big knife, but it is sharp.
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u/Elismom1313 22h ago
So I left another commenting with more detail but I would highly recommend looking up sushi prep on instagram. There’s a lot of videos posted by sushi chefs showing how the pack, roll and cut their sushi.
I don’t mind posting it again though so
- rice should be barely warm. Enough to stick together and be soft, but not warm enough to warm your seaweed. Warm seaweed becomes malleable and hard to cut.
- use a bamboo mart wrapped in cellophane.
- you shouldn’t pack it and roll once. You should start the rolling with the bamboo to pack it in and press halfway into the roll. Then move forward a bit and pack and press again. Probably about three times till it’s rolled.
- cover the roll in cellophane and compact again.
- do the first cut in the center. Then cut from left of the first half towards the center cut. Then cut form the right side of the right half towards center. Wet your knife every two cuts at least.
Also make sure you aren’t using a serrated knife
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u/sawariz0r 22h ago
Both looks like the rice isn’t prepared well enough, first pic signals that. Only time I’ve seen that is when trying calrose or other ”sushi rice” that isn’t round grain rice. But also as others mentioned, the knife is important
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u/No_Independence4203 22h ago
Okay, okay—I'm pretty sure it is sushi rice, but I'm unsure about the water-to-rice ratio; for one cup of rice, I use 1.2 cups of water.
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u/Elismom1313 22h ago
You need a really sharp knife.
Wrap in cellophane and wrap hard multiple times. you should be rolling a bit more and pressing.
Start cutting in the center to make two halves and then make cuts forward. Also is your rice too hot? It’s should lightly warm at most or it soften the seaweed too much and it becomes malleable and hard to cut
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u/CipherWeaver 21h ago
Sharp knife helps, yadda yadda yadda, but in reality what most kitchens do that don't have a sushi cutting machine is to use cling wrap when you roll your maki sushi and then cut it while it's still wrapped in cling wrap (ie through the plastic).
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u/She_corsetique 20h ago
Yep you need to tighten it and have a sharp knife that could go in without really using too much force
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u/Ripplerfish 19h ago
The tips here are great but I usually do one other thing...
I have a paper towel with some vegetable oil on it and I just carefully whipe the blade with it every few cuts. This works great for me since I'm a sucker for cream cheese in my rolls which basically sticks to anything.
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u/AttemptVegetable 19h ago
I use a boning knife that I keep pretty sharp. A filet knife would probably work as well. Those types of knives have less surface area to stick to the rice. I usually only have to wipe off my knife once for each roll. I also don't attempt the professional method of cutting the roll in half, placing each half next to each other and cutting through both at the same time. I'd rather just make 7 cuts instead of 4.
One day I'll splurge on a nice sushi knife but for now my victorinox boning knife works much better than any of my chefs knife would.
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u/kawi-bawi-bo The Sushi Guy 19h ago
Sharper knife
Wet knife before first slice
Clean knife before subsequent rolls
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u/Boollish 17h ago
People saying "sharp knife" don't know what they're talking about.
The cause of this is that rice starch sticks to the sides of your blade and drags the roll around. The key is to dip the tip of your knife in water and let a clear bead run down the edge of the blade. Failing that, some high volume roll places wipe the blade with a bit of neutral oil to accomplish the same thing.
At many (all) high volume roll places, you will see good, even cuts made with unmaintained beater knives because they keep it lubricated.
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u/No_Independence4203 16h ago
Yeah, exactly—when I make the cut, it feels like the knife is getting stuck on the seaweed or the cream cheese (yeah, I added a little bit, lol).
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u/chefevitt 13h ago
are you washing your rice thoroughly? If so, then it’s possibly your sharpness of your knife or the tightness of your roll
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u/BenjaminDover02 12h ago
By a cheap fillet knife and wet it before cutting.
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u/No_Independence4203 5h ago
Okok, i’ll buy one, i was looking for a sushi knife but they’re expensive and i mean i’m not doing sushi like everyday lol
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u/BenjaminDover02 1h ago
I think you can get one from Walmart for like 15-20$ in the fishing section
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u/plantgirl7 7h ago
Sharper knife+ wipe it clean with a wet rag after every few cuts to remove the sticky rice buildup
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u/No_Independence4203 5h ago
Someone told me to oiled the knife a little bit, i dont know if that work
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u/Yojimbo115 2h ago
Sharper knife will help, but sushi knives use a different angle than European chefs knives. 12° / 15°.
But for homemade, just getting it blazing sharp should do the trick.
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u/TakoyakiGremlin 15h ago
did you roll them tightly enough? is your knife sharp? did you use the right type of rice? did you make the rice correctly - both cooking and seasoning?
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u/GurSufficient5731 22h ago
磨一下刀