When making sushi, is there a homemade alternative to a rolling mat?
You don’t necessarily need a rolling mat to make sushi. You just have to make sure that the roll is tight and make a rolling motion like you’re rolling play-doh into a long thick tube. That’s basically it. Trust me, it works just as well as a rolling mat. Apply equal pressure along the nori and make sure that the rice is sticky enough to cling together. Otherwise, you’ll have a huge mess. The key to sticky rice is making sure it has enough water when it is being made (not enough water makes the rice dry, therefore it’ll fall apart) or you can adjust the amount of rice vinegar you add to the sushi rice, adding more could make the rice stickier. The rolling mat is really unnecessary, just another thing to make the sushi “extra perfect”, which if you are making homemade sushi, doesn’t matter. The rolling effect I described above will save you a couple bucks and if you apply the right amount of pressure, and if the sticky-ness of the rice is just right, you’d have a pretty decent “circular
