Makisu Sushi Roll Mat | Professionally tested Maki Roller

From 20 years of experience as a Sushi Chef, this is my personal, professional Makisu.

• Thinner and lighter than a bamboo maki mat for less fatigue
• 20cm width fits Nori Seaweed sheets perfectly. To be able to precisely form the edges of Hosomaki and Uramaki.
• Correct usage is more obvious due to a completely flat side facing up.  With common makisu its an easy to make error to face up the rounded side.
• Extended width of the first/last struts to make it easier to form a flat lower side due to better control.
• Food safe when wrapped in cling foil using standard household 30cm width foil rolls instead of professional 50cm rolls necessary to wrap 24cm minimal width bamboo makisu.

Food Safety

You can use the bare sushi roll mat for single purpose use and discard the mat afterwards

For multiple uses, wrap the makisu into cling foil to prevent rice getting in contact with the rough filament surfaces. Its very hard to completely clean the mat when not wrapped in foil.

The first step not shown in below video is to take the cling foil out of its packaging and lay it in front of your cutting board. So that it will unwrap evenly over the cutting board when pulled.

How to use it

Rolling Sushi needs some practice to achieve tight but still fluffy rolls. 

Mind to moisten your fingers and knife before touching the rice.

Face the Makisu with the flat side up. This is important to not leave irregularities on the roll from the beveled struts. And to have an easier time to form the roll into a rough square with rounded edges

To roll a Uramaki (Inside Out Roll) like shown in the video, it is not overly important to hit the exact amount of rice since it will not be wrapped inside the seaweed. Giving much more play for tolerance. Ideally, the rice ball you start with should be 100g. But 90-120g will do.

Position the Nori Sheet: Place a sheet of Nori (seaweed) onto the mat with the rough side facing up.

Add the Rice:

• Form a rice ball of 90-120g (ideally 100g) and place it in the center of the Nori.
• Spread the rice evenly by gently pressing it to the left and right.

Distribute the Rice:

• Starting from the center, push half the rice upwards toward the top edge of the Nori.
• Push the other half downward, ensuring an even spread of rice across the sheet.

Adjust and Perfect:

• Fix any uneven spots or empty corners so that the rice layer is even.

Flip the Nori and rice:

• Carefully turn the Nori sheet over, so that the rice is now facing down and the Nori side is up.

Add Fillings:

• Place your ingredients (such as fish, avocado, cucumber, etc) along the horizontal center of the nori sheet. 

Begin Rolling:

• Position the nori and rice sheet so that it leaves a small 1cm gap to the bottom edge of the mat.
• Use your thumbs to lift the bottom edge of the makisu.
• Try to keep the ingredients from slipping forward with all your remaining fingers. 
• Roll the bottom edge up and on top of the ingredients, making sure the rice and Nori cover them while keeping your fingers in place to hold the fillings in the center.
• This was the first half

Join the edges:

• Roll forward another ¼ turn so that the Nori completely wraps the ingredients and both rice edges join.
• When joining both edges of the Nori, leave a small 1cm gap exposed to the top edge. This gap will ensure that both edges overlap when finalizing the roll in next step.
  You can enlarge or reveal this gap when hidden by pushing the bottom edge towards you, compressing the roll and ingredients.

Finalize the Roll:

• Open the mat on the front by ¼  and roll the sushi forward one more ¼ turn onto the now exposed section of the roll.
• You can now try to form a rectangle shape by gently pressing/squishing the makisu with the goal to have the same amount of struts on every side.
• Unroll the mat to reveal your finished Uramaki roll.
• Cut it in 6 or 8 pieces by first halving the roll with a moist knife. Then doing 2 or 3 more even cuts. Cutting in 6 pieces is easier. While the size of 1/8 Uramaki pieces is much more suitable to chew in one bite.

Revisions

• V1: Meant for a quick print with only 2mm z-height. 
• V2: Better stability along the width of the mat. More rounded finish for a better resemblance of rounded bamboo sticks for a more authentic feeling. With 20% longer print time than V1.
• V3 is work in progress, also the PETG version broke after some days of intense use. V3 will be a TPU bottom and swap to PETG.
   

Print advise:

• Ideally, print the first two layers in TPU/Flex. Then swap filament to PETG or ABS. The makisu i printed this way still holds up since more than a month now. Meaning >1k rolls.
• Pure PETG can achieve durable flexibility, but mine broke after some hundred rolls
• Low temperature ABS like the JAYO easy ABS used for the title picture behaved similar to PETG.
• PLA will work but might break after some tenth of rolls.