Hi, everyone! For this edition of the Good Eats blog, we tried something different than our usual format. I am sharing a favorite recipe of mine with you — Spam Musubi!

It’s an easy dish to make for your family and friends, so I hope you try making it yourself. Since Chancellor Martin hadn’t tried it before, I thought it would be fun to teach him how to prepare a musubi for himself. You can watch his first attempt at making Spam Musubi here. Spoiler alert — he loved it! And I hope you all do too.

Two spam musubi on a plate
What the final product will look like!

Spam Musubi is a very popular dish in Hawaii. It’s a simple but versatile food that can be eaten as a snack or even a full meal. It’s made with three main ingredients — sliced Spam lunch meat, sushi rice and nori (roasted seaweed) — but from there you can let your imagination and tastes run wild with glazing the Spam, seasoning your rice and adding toppings to your completed musubi.

Spam (a canned lunch meat made of pork shoulder and ham) has a long and interesting history in Hawaii. It was included in the rations for soldiers stationed in Hawaii during World War II and eventually made its way off military bases and into everyday cuisine. From there, it stuck around and has been a staple in Hawaiian foods, like musubi, ever since!

While there’s no formal recipe for Spam Musubi, I’m sharing how my family and I prefer to prepare it, and I am including my secret ingredient that gives it an extra special flavor. 

The ingredients for spam musubi laid out: a spam block cut into six slices, a bowl of cooked rice, sheets of nori, a bottle of furikake, and three bowls with soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and oyster sauce.

Ingredients:

  • A can of Spam, sliced into 6–8 even slices (thinner or thicker to your preference)
  • Cooked short grain white rice (I like to use sushi rice)
  • Nori sheets, cut in half
  • Teriyaki sauce
  • Furikake (my secret ingredient!)

You can find these ingredients at most grocery stores. You’ll also need a musubi mold. If you can’t find one, you can wash out the Spam can and use that instead.

Five slices of spam fry in a pan

Preparation:

  • Fry the sliced Spam on medium heat. Since Spam is ready to eat out of the can, you can cook it to your taste. I prefer it well done.
  • In the last 30 seconds, turn off the heat and pour some teriyaki sauce over your Spam to let it glaze.
  • Then, prepare a nori sheet and place your musubi mold in the center of it.
  • Fill the bottom of the mold with rice. Use what suits your taste — some people like a lot of rice, but I prefer a lighter amount. 
  • Next, use the press from the mold to flatten the rice into a block (or if you’re using the Spam can, use your fingers to press the rice down). Wet the press to help keep the rice from sticking.
Vice Chancellor Gonzalez uses a musubi mold to press rice
Forming the rice with the mold
  • Place a prepared Spam slice into the mold on top of the rice. This is a great time to customize your musubi. Some people will add an egg or other topping here. I like to add a light sprinkle of furikake rice seasoning, which is a blend of nori, sesame seeds and salt. Don’t add too much if you don’t like salty foods! I also like to add some oyster or soy sauce, and some people will add more teriyaki sauce at this point.
  • Add more rice on top of the Spam and use your press to flatten it down. You’re going to then slide the mold up, so make sure to press it really well!
  • Once you’ve lifted the mold away, fold the nori around the rice and Spam and wrap it like a present. Run a little water down the seam with your finger to help keep the nori stuck together.
  • You’ve now made musubi! Eat it warm and fresh or let it cool, it’s up to you.

As you can tell, this recipe is both simple and very customizable. Whether you like it plain or decide to dress it up with sauces and toppings, Spam Musubi makes for a delicious and quick snack or lunch.

Try it yourself! If you do, tag @WashUStudentAffairs in photos on Instagram, and let us know what you think!