HOT BUTTERED RUM

[donotprint]

Hot, Buttered, Chest-Warming

Transporting butter across state lines with the intent to combine with intoxicating liquors.  Not a crime, but it should be, given how balmy and festive hot buttered rums are, particularly when made with homemade butter.  They are just the thing whether the thunder is shaking the house on a wet Oregon Coast night (our experience the last few days) or the heavy, white clouds are laying down their fifth foot of snow today or you are all together at last.  Pick up a bottle of serious rum and mash together the base, most of the ingredients for which you likely have on hand.  Then wrap yourself in a downy blanket, cue my favorite Christmas song, and sip away.  Happy Christmas, gentle readers.

[/donotprint]

Hot Buttered Rums

When you’re making the base, I encourage you to add extra pinches of each spice until you’ve arrived at your proprietary version. The spices in my recipe are apparent, but not bold.  And don’t skimp on the butter or else the result will be flat and overly sweet.

M I X  & M A K E . Bring two sticks (one cup) of butter to room temperature.  Stir in two teaspoons ground cinnamon, two pinches of ground cloves (both preferably freshly ground), 3/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, one pinch of unrefined sea salt, and two cups of rapadura sugar.  Let chill in the refrigerator until firmed somewhat.  In the meantime, boil water. Pour one or two shots of rum (how cold are you?) over two tablespoons of the mix.  Fill handled glasses with boiling water and stir until well combined.  Makes 10 drinks.

N O T E S .

• Sugar. I’ve called for rapadura sugar because its deep molasses flavor complements the same relatively unrefined cane-sugar juice or molasses from which rum is made.  That said, brown sugar or whatever other cane sugar you have on hand will work.
• Rum. The serious bartenders at Bourbon & Branch, a San Francisco speakeasy, recommended these rums for my drink: Zacapa Centenario, 23 Years; El Dorado, 15 Years; and Pampero Ron Añejo Aniversario Reserva Exclusiva.  Eric Cripe, a veritable almanac of all facts spirits-related at our local liquor source, The Jug Shop, agreed with these recommendations and added Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva Venezuelan Rum to the list.  We’ve been using the latter all month with excellent results.

R E F I G U R E . Pour one shot of rum with a half or full shot of the Coffee Liqueur from Portland’s micro-distillery, House Spirits.  This limited-release spirit combines Hawaiian turbinado cane sugar with Cellar Door Coffee’s Guatemalan beans.  It’s what I’ve always wished Kahlua would be: serious, lean, and to the point without the flabby glycerin and excessive sugar.

L I T T L E  S I P S . Ha.

Interested in what Blue Egg Kitchen is up to next?  Get recipe updates by email or RSS feed.

Text and photo © Blue Egg Kitchen 2010

[print_link]