Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Manufacturing Of The Best Rice Balls

By Steven Carter


Onigiri is a very popular Japanese food. This kind of food is made from rice which is often formed in a cylinder or triangular form and wrapped with sea weeds or nori. Typically, onigiris are filled with some pickled ume, katsuobushi, tarako, salted salmon, kombu, and some other salty or sour ingredients that will serve as its natural preservatives.

Nowadays, many stores are already putting up some stocks of different varieties of flavors and of fillings since it became much more popular in many different places. The popularity has grown into many parts in the world, most especially best rice balls in Long Island. Even those small stalls and stores are now offering and selling take out for onigiris.

There are already a lot of misconceptions in which many people have said that onigiri is a type of sushi, but actually it is not. Onigiri is made from a plain rice which is lightly salted while the sushi is made from rice with vinegar, salt, and sugar. And also, onigiri will make the rice easy and portable to eat while the sushi, originally, is made as one way of preserving fishes.

Before, most manufacturers prefer on producing it manually, which means to do the hand rolling techniques because this technique may be impossible for the machines to perform. But recently, modern machines have been manufactured and are used now for shaping a rice ball in triangular form. In this process, fillings are put through holes instead filling it when rolling.

One disadvantage of using the machine is it makes the nori moist and sticky because it is already wrapped to the onigiri. But there is an improvement being made for the packaging in order to separate it from the rice. So before the person will eat it, he or she will open the nori packet and wrap it around the onigiri.

And one important advantage of the machine limitations is it will help in the production of new flavors mush easier since the filling is applied through holes instead of applying it when rolling. It also makes the production mush easier since the cooking process may not need any changes from ingredient toi ingredient. And now, modern onigiris are being wrapped in a plastic wrapping specially made to act as barrier from moisture.

Typically, rice balls are made from boiled white rice, but other variations of cooked rice may include okowa or kowameshi. It is a glutinous rice which is either steamed or cooked with some vegetables such as red beans. And another variety is mazegohan or mixed rice which may be cooked and mixed with the preferred ingredients.

People before believed these food is originated in samurai rice balls that are wrapped with the leaves of bamboo. And they also believed that most of Japanese food also is originated in the samurai innovations. But from the historic battlefields, it became available in stores.

Onigiris are now available from many convenience stores in many different countries or cities such as in Long Island. There are also people who often make these at home. Some of the popular variations include tsuna mayo, mentaiko, ikura, salmon and mayonnaise, nikumaki, etc.




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