Spam Musubi

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Spam. You either love it or you hate it.

Growing up, my mom would occasionally slice a can of Spam thinly and put it in our sandwiches for lunch. I hated it. But yeah, we were poor...and just had to survive. So when I became an adult, I vowed never to touched a can of Spam again.

Until I met my husband. He grew up in Hawaii.

You see, Hawaii has a love affair with Spam. It dates back to WWII, when the non-refrigerated canned meat was served to GI's for protein. After the war, Spam worked it's way into the Hawaiian cuisine. Today, Hawaii consumes more Spam than any other state in the US-- seven million cans a year, according to the Hormel website. And Waikiki hosts the WORLD's largest Spam festival-- the Spam Jam-- that is now going on 17 years strong.

The first time I saw a Spam Musubi, I was actually shocked. Canned meat inside "sushi"? Isn't sushi suppose to be "high end"? The concept of Spam sushi sounded gross to me. But I didn't want to be offensive to my future in-laws, so I accepted the musubi and took a tentative bite. Holy Cow! It was really really good!!! The combination of slightly fried teriyaki Spam tucked inside warm rice and wrapped in nori really worked well together. I was so surprised.

And converted.

Now, I make my own Spam musubi whenever I throw a Hawaiian themed party. AND, I tuck MORE Spam in my musubis than normal Hawaiians do; instead of slicing a can of Spam to 8 slices, I only cut it into 6 slices.

Pan fry spam slices in teriyaki sauce

Place mold over seaweed

Add layer of rice and sprinkle some furikaki

Add spam slices

Add another layer of rice. Remove mold

Wrap seaweed sheet over to form musubi log. Slice log to 6 pieces


*Note added June 2021: A friend of mine used this recipe to make spam musubi and gave some very helpful feedback to include pictures and information on the type of rice used to make musubis, and how to cook this particular type of rice. In the recipe I specify using Medium Grain rice. This is Japanese rice or unseasoned sushi rice and is in between long grain rice and short grain rice. Read more about medium grain rice here. The type of rice used is important because if you use long grain rice, the rice won't be sticky enough to hold together and the musubi will fall apart. If you use short grain sweet rice, the musubi will be too soft and sticky. Here's a good link to how to cook Japanese rice, but usually on the back of the bag of Japanese sushi rice, there are both stove top and rice cooker instructions, and it's very similar to the instructions on the link (at least rice to water ratio).



This Kokuho Rose pictured above is the brand of Japanese rice I used, but there are many other brands such as Botan Calrose, Nishiki, Sekka, etc. Somewhere on the package, it should say sushi rice or medium grain rice.


Yields 18 appetizer servings (36 pieces)

Ingredient:

  • 2 cans of 25% Less Sodium Spam (12oz cans)
  • 3 T soy sauce
  • ½ t garlic powder
  • ½ t ginger powder
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1 T water
  • 1 to 2 T furikake (optional)
  • 6 sheets roasted nori
  • 9 cups medium grain* cooked white rice (This is Japanese rice, or unseasoned sushi rice, NOT long grain or short grain sweet rice. See Note above)
  • musubi mold

Procedures:

  1. Cut each can of Spam into 6 equal slices.
  2. In a frying pan, add soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger powder, sugar and water. Swirl to mix and dissolve the sugar. This is your teriyaki sauce.
  3. Place slices of Spam in the frying pan with the teriyaki sauce. Cook the Spam slices until each side is lightly brown and the sauce starts to caramelize. About 2 minutes on each side. Set aside.
  4. To mold the musubi, lay a sheet of nori on a cutting board or clean work surface. Place musubi mold over it, in the middle, then fill the mold with a mound of rice. (To prevent rice from sticking to your hands, have a bowl of 2 cups water mixed with 1 T salt next to your work surface, and dip your hands in the water each time you touch the rice.) Press the rice firmly with the musubi maker press until the rice is about ¾ inch thick, adding more rice as needed. (It's important to press firmly, so the rice is not loose and the musubi will hold together properly.) Sprinkle furikake over the rice if using.
  5. Add a slice of Spam on top of the pressed rice. Pictured is a double musubi mold, so there is one slice of Spam on the right and one on the left.
  6. Add another mound of rice on top of the Spam and spread evenly with your fingers after dipping your fingers in the bowl of salt water. Press the rice firmly with the musubi maker press until the rice is about ¾ inch thick, adding more rice as needed. Your Spam should now be sandwiched between two layers of rice.
  7. Use the press to hold the rice down with two thumbs and pull the mold upward to unmold the musubi with your index fingers. Wrap the nori around the rice-spam-rice stack. Flip over the musubi log so the nori seam is down, and set aside. Repeat steps 4-7 for the remaining Spam musubi logs. You should be able to make 6 musubi logs with 2 cans of Spam.
  8. Cut each musubi log into 6 equal pieces, making a total of 36 appetizer size pieces. Note: If you want this to be a portable snack, then only cut each musubi log in half making a total of 12 large pieces; individually wrap each of the 12 large pieces tightly with saran wrap.