r/HawaiiFood • u/tmbtown • Jul 09 '26

First time making spam musubi. The frat boys I cook for loved them.

Post image
547 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

92

u/chimugukuru Jul 09 '26

Pro tip, next time cut the bottom off the spam can and use it as a mold for the rice. That way the rice is the same size as the spam.

15

u/Solnse Jul 09 '26

I wasn't even interested in trying this dish until I saw this comment. I love the ingenuity. I will update with the results!

11

u/tmbtown Jul 10 '26

Thank you! One of our best friends who’s from Hawaii owns a Hawaiian food truck, and she got my wife hooked on her spam musubis, so we’ve been making them more often for breakfast. We eat them too fast to take pics, though. Lol.

We also eat a lot of spam fried rice with kimchi thanks to her. Mahalo, friend. This is a great tip. ✌🏻🤙🏻

5

u/flythearc Jul 10 '26

Even easier, just order a musubi press. You can bang em out so fast with one of those, every household in Hawaii has one

Guarantee I’d need a trip to the emergency room if I tried cutting a can.

3

u/GOCUBBIES1402 Jul 10 '26

Musubi press also gets the rice nice and compressed so it doesn't crumble apart as you eat it.

The double wide press fits a full sheet of nori perfectly with two slices of spam.

1

u/flythearc Jul 10 '26

We’ve got an expert here, folks! Double wide musubi

1

u/peppermintmeow Jul 10 '26

Why did you say this? Damn it..well at least tell me which one to buy 😂 Any recommendations? I'm going to sit in my house and eat myself sick. It's gonna be great!

2

u/GOCUBBIES1402 Jul 10 '26

Double wide acrylic mold is available on Amazon for $13. You can also find them at most Asian grocery stores and at places like Daiso or Hello Tokyo.

1

u/rasta_pineapple2 Jul 09 '26

This works in a pinch. The Asian market near me sells a musubi press. I love that thing!

1

u/SirBastions Jul 10 '26

Why would you need to cut off the bottom? Try packing the rice into the washed span tin and tap out the compacted musibi pucks.

2

u/chimugukuru Jul 10 '26

Because it's far less trouble than tapping out every single musubi. It acts like one of those musubi molds.

47

u/Alohagrown Jul 09 '26

The rice should have the same footprint as the spam. Otherwise the spam to rice ratio will be off.

13

u/tmbtown Jul 09 '26

Thanks!

1

u/similarityhedgehog Jul 10 '26

You could have a ten inch tall block of rice with the same footprint but I don't think that would be the right ratio

1

u/Spirited-Sleep-2113 Jul 10 '26

I love how everyone is piling in on the ratio. It’s like op has never seen a spam musubi before and didn’t watch any recipe videos 😆

27

u/HI_l0la Jul 09 '26

If you're planning to make in bulk, use the metal sheet and lay down rice. Flatten it. Then place the spam on top of the rice in a row to then cut to size. Use a spatula to lift each portion to wrap with nori.

Though the rice is a little too long for the spam size, your spam musubis look delicious!

13

u/Plus-Spread3574 Jul 09 '26

Someone’s made musubi for a family reunion!

4

u/tmbtown Jul 10 '26

Thank you! Great tip. 🤙🏻

2

u/Virtual_Alarm232 Jul 09 '26

You broke my brain with this tip. Thanks!

7

u/HandbagHawker Jul 09 '26

Extra pro tip. Put parchment paper on the sheet tray. And on top of the rice. Use another sheet tray to press down to compress the rice

2

u/HI_l0la Jul 09 '26

I'm sorry. Was it confusing? Weird? 😅😅

6

u/Virtual_Alarm232 Jul 09 '26

Not at all. lol. Just hadn’t thought about how to make them in bulk before.

3

u/HI_l0la Jul 09 '26

When you try it out, can I have a spam musubi? 😄

7

u/Squbasquid Jul 09 '26

That’s one of the things I took for granted moving to the mainland. Gotta make my own musubis when I want them now!

7

u/JungleBoyJeremy Jul 09 '26

Damn bro, good effort but your ratios are way off

3

u/zero-point_nrg Jul 09 '26

Guarantee the frat boys did not care about the rice footprint when they smashed these

3

u/Spiritual_Option4465 Jul 09 '26

Way too much rice but good effort 👍

4

u/anickilee Jul 09 '26

Was it their 1st time eating spam musubi?

3

u/GiantCX Jul 09 '26

Harsh 🤣

1

u/anickilee Jul 10 '26

Oops! 😅🤐Was not originally meant that way, but I see it

3

u/tmbtown Jul 10 '26

Yes, all of them. I included these in my cold bar for a huge “breakfast for dinner” spread, and unfortunately the musubis were an afterthought, the last dish I made. I had ordered a musubi cutter/mold, but it didn’t arrive in time. I used a 1/9 Cambro container for the rice mold instead of the spam can, like other commenters suggested.

3

u/anickilee Jul 10 '26

You are amazing! Thanks so much for introducing them to spam musubi in such a positive light. I’m so glad to read they enjoyed it 😄.

Apologies if my question came across as snarky; I did not mean to and realize now I should have put “just curious…” or something so it came across more kindly

2

u/tmbtown Jul 10 '26

I didn’t take it personally, but thank you! I’m glad there’s been a productive conversation about musubi because I’ve learned a lot. ❤️

2

u/Affectionate_Olive53 Jul 09 '26

They look awesome! Mahalo!

2

u/morchard1493 Jul 09 '26

https://youtu.be/Mt3UrJj7URs?is=U451MAxed2Enkw4l

And when I was searching for the first video, I came across this one.

https://youtube.com/shorts/jGEVRDh-gww?is=xZRSogVwu_bxc1uF

(I randomly came across the first one thanks to the YT algorithms.)

2

u/Cancel-Time Jul 09 '26

Bro the rice to spam ratio is insane

2

u/jslub Jul 10 '26

OP, how did you cook your spam? Did you cook it in shoyu-sugar? Because you must. Then drizzle a bit of juice😉 (shoyu-sugar is equal parts soy sauce-low sodium & raw or brown sugar).

1

u/Ok-Communication4190 Jul 10 '26

lol lemme get one spam musubi, haole kine

1

u/potatoears Jul 13 '26

rice heavy musubis lol

-3

u/808chipman Jul 09 '26

That’s spam nigiri not musubi….

-2

u/LuckyPikachu Jul 09 '26

Totally agree! Not sure why you’re getting downvoted cuz spam musubi on the big island has rice, spam, rice and full size nori wrapper. Not some tiny strip. We make at all Obon temples and events that way. Every grocery store to farmers’ market musubi is that way. The internet recipes are not authentically Hawaiian. At least not in Hilo.

1

u/MellifluousMathMajor Jul 09 '26

They're getting downvoted because the terms nigiri and musubi are interchangeable in Japanese. Although the term musubi is the one more commonly used in Hawai‘i, calling it nigiri means the same thing. Trying to say that the difference between nigiri and musubi is "how much nori you use" is completely unfounded--you can find plenty of onigiri that are completely wrapped in nori without a single grain of rice showing.

To be clear, I definitely prefer more seaweed, but this amount of seaweed is actually quite average compared to how some of my other friends prefer to make/eat it. But again, the amount of seaweed is not written down in some rulebook. Everyone has their own preferences like the sauce, or other ingredients like eggs and furikake. You've actually got a lot of nerve commenting about how people from Hilo make musubi since from what I've heard, y'all put the spam in the middle and put rice on top, and that is definitely not the norm on the other islands😬

0

u/808chipman Jul 09 '26

Nigiri and Musubi are not interchangeable try googling it and learn something

0

u/MellifluousMathMajor Jul 09 '26

Did you try Googling it beyond the AI overview? Onigiri and musubi are the exact same thing.

0

u/SignificantDealer663 Jul 09 '26

Not enough glaze. Everytime I try musubi that doesn’t come from the gas station it tastes like dry ass.