Inspired by the side convo in the WOYM thread, I thought it would make sense to have a dedicated discussion for homemade sushi where peeps can share their tips and tricks.
Maybe the @moderator-team can move the existing posts in said thread here to start us off?
@Lectroid, @Desert-Dan, @ricepad
Let it rip 
If I canāt figure out what this means the mods may not be able to either.
i make it at home fairly often. agree that using the inside out approach with the rice can be a bit easier to roll, although i do both. the biggest personal challenges i have are getting the rice perfect and the amount of compression to apply on the roll. i really want to see good separation of the rice grains, but find it difficult to manage that all the time.
I suspect youāre trying to squeeze your roll too much when you roll it. You do want to apply a little pressure, but if youāve got stuff sliding around or getting squeezed out, youāre squeezing too hard. There is a moment of truth in which fortune favors the bold: you have to move quickly and smoothly to bring the edge of the nori āover the topā - I have always imagined what a wave looks like as it crests then crashes. Very little pressure needed at this point.
iām pretty confident they can, since I also flagged the initial post in that thread* that started the sushi convo 
WOYM = Whatās on your mind?
Iām guessing sashimi and other raw fish dishes donāt count, but they seem way easier!
Hereās a discussion or two about shopping for raw fish.
I think sashimi and other raw fish dishes DO very much count. Part of this is the way that the practice and economics of home sushi can be hard to justify, esp given that by and large, we donāt have the constant practice of proper assembly.
If there are ways to get, say, a variety small sashimi blocks that would feed two, then that and chirashi or pokeā are a much more achievable goal.
my experience rolling sushi at home is that getting the amount of rice correct is the key to easier rolling. Too much rice and you have to squeeze things to get the ends to meet - thus pushing everything out the ends. Too little rice and it is too loose to hold together when you cut it.
When I get frustrated I switch to making nigiri, which can be tricky to get right but for some reason just seems more intuitive to me.
Yes!
Fortunately these guys at True Fish consider us in their delivery area.
A couple of nights ago, I got it in my head to make sushi at home. Nothing fancy. Just homemade California rolls. We had a ripe avocado, sushi rice, and nori in the pantry, so all I really needed was the surimi. I even swung by the Asian market and got a little $4 container of tobiko.
Make rice. Add some rice vinegar and a bit of sugar while warm. Making Krab-salad is easy. Add a touch of msg to Best Foods mayo for a quick Kewpie-like base and mix. Slice avocado. Make rolls.
Except no. Rolling sushi isnāt difficult, but it is finicky. And since I do this maybe once a year, I totally screw up the first one, and by the the time Iām on the fourth and Iām finally making one that doesnāt look like a trash pile and fall apart, weāre both full. And I just use the leftovers as a āCalifornia chirashi bowlā the next day.
And thus I vow that I will continue to pay $$ for sushi so I do not have to deal with the prep or the work or the cleanup. Until I try again next year.
One of the best parts of making sushi is that even the ugly ones taste as good as the pretty ones!
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I asked my son last night what he wanted, around 6pm. He asked could we roll some sushi. I answered, āheck no, not in 2 hours - if you want sushi we need to start like 6 hours aheadā.
Same problem here - we donāt do it more than twice a year. Iāve got the rice recipe down, but it still takes some doing to get the rolls down.
Well, I think you and he rest of us who struggle with it are the proof that it IS 
Skillz.
I bought some cute gadgets you and your son might enjoy ā one makes rice balls for tamari sushi (my favorite of the bits), one presses the rice and fillings into a cylinder that you can then wrap seaweed around (compacts the rice and fillings nicely so they donāt fall apart when you slice the roll), and the others are for onigiri and box sushi. Iāve also seen a icecube-like mold for nigiri.
I use them sometimes when making sushi for family. When itās just me, I donāt mind practicing rolling with a mat, even if the first one falls apart 
Thank you. Whatās the brand names, if you recall them?
The obvious solution is to make it more often. Iām lucky in that I used to be the guy you paid $$ to make it, but thatās also a curse, because I canāt bring myself to part with $$ to have somebody else make it. Hence, I end up buying all the ingredients to make whatever kind of sushi for which I hanker, which is really not cost-effective. I donāt care to eat a pound worth of maguro nigiri, but itās tough to find chunks of good quality tuna that are much smaller than a pound in a shape that would make nice slices for nigiri. The last time I made nigiri it was because Spawn2 and son-in-law wanted some lessons in making it, so I bought some large scallops, shrimp, a chunk of yellowtail (Mrs. ricepadās favorite), and a small slab of maguro (Tokyo Fish Market for the win!) and the four of us had sushi for dinner. Theyāre reasonably good making futomaki, so with most of the trimmings, I taught them how to make hosomaki (the little rolls). And with the absolute scraps and leftovers, chirashi! I think that lesson cost me close to a hundred bucks in fish, but at a sushi bar, the same meal for the four of us would probably have cleared two hundred, easy.
Similar to this. There are a few combinations so you can see what bits are appealing.
Thatās the thing. We can make our own - if all 8 of us are eating - for about 20% of the cost of a nice sushi bar. The problem is twofold. We donāt often nowadays have all 8 eating, and (2), we donāt do it quite so well as the local places anyway.
