Recipe: Make your own spiced rum

"How to" + drink recipe from Forbidden Island's Martin Cate in this WSJ story!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123395505336458213.html

Thanks for the article!

Well, the favorite drink among the pirates of the Carribbean was bumbo, which was/is spiced rum. The main spice was nutmeg, but there were lots of other things in it. The Carribbean was a sugar, herb and spice candy store, as everything grew very well there and in great abundance. The recipes you find today for "the best" spiced rum are just more palatable versions of bumbo.

Here's a Captian Morgan-bashing post with bumbo references.

Here is a bumbo recipe from Cap'n Dildarian Pumpernickel posted on Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day in 2007. Warning: this one is heavy on the nutmeg, as you might hope to find on the Spanish Main but a bit overwhelming, perhaps, by today's standards. Any batch can be favorably adjusted by adding more sugar and spices for the flavor and sweetness, and more rum if the additives are overwhelming.

Interesting that this has come up, because bumbo is what I have been mostly drinking lately myself. I make my own with key limes, blue agave syrup (Trader Joe's) and nutmeg. Just a pinch of nutmeg is all that is needed but if the nutmeg is fresh it really shows up in the drink and makes it nice.

I followed the recipe just as Martin said, but I think my Cinnamon stick was too large and has left a real punch to the rum. I left the Vanilla bean in to try and save it are there any other tips or tricks? I hate to throw a whole bottle out just due to Cinnamon spice overload. Anything would be wonderful. Mahalo for your time.

I'm no expert, but from a purely logical "chemical" method, I would make another batch WITHOUT the cinnamon and then blend the 2 batches together until you get the desired taste.

good call anytime I can buy more booze is always the right call to make. I did addd a couple of coffee beans and left the vanilla in and it has turned much more mild. Mahalo for the advice and I will buy another to try and equal it out.

Overall, this spiced rum recipe is great. It's the sole reason that I don't buy spiced rum anymore. I've tinkered with the proportions a bit, but I encourage everyone to try this. I'm going to post about this soon on my blog.

On 2009-08-29 21:44, Brice wrote:
... I think my Cinnamon stick was too large...

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from the ladies in the office... 8)

As you might imagine, when you make bumbo, from time to time you can easily overdo something that will knock your socks off while your shoes are still on.

Your bet is to use it to spice up other rums on an individual drink basis. That way you're not "ruining" another full bottle of rum by still being off the mark with the recipe. By the time you've made the adjustments you want, the renegade batch has been used up.

Slow system response leading to a double post.

[ Edited by: The Gnomon 2009-09-04 07:12 ]

On 2009-08-29 21:44, Brice wrote:
... I think my Cinnamon stick was too large...

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from the ladies in the office... 8)

As you might imagine, when you make bumbo, from time to time you can easily overdo something that will knock your socks off while your shoes are still on.

Your bet is to use it to spice up other rums on an individual drink basis. That way you're not "ruining" another full bottle of rum by still being off the mark with the recipe. By the time you've made the adjustments you want, the renegade batch has been used up.

I've been thinking of making my own spiced rum, probably based on Martin Cate's recipe. Anyone have any other suggestions, ideas, perils, etc.?

Nutmeg, which was probably the most predominant spice in the bumbo of the Spanish Main, is the ingredient that can most easily overwhelm your concoction. If you notice during the first day or so into the process that it's going to be too much, the only way to stop it from getting stronger is to decant and filter the entire batch then throw the rest of the ingredients back in. Because the nutmeg is ground, you can't just pick it out like the other things.

You could also keep adding more rum, which is what I usually do, but I'd only recommend that if the flavor of the batch was headed in the right direction in the first place. Otherwise, you could just be making additional rum undrinkable.

Martin's recipe doesn't call for as much nutmeg as I use, so it seems to be designed in a way that most people will probably not need to adjust in that regard. Most likely more nutmeg would have to be added, if anything. That's a lot easier than taking it out.

OK, I made my own batch of spiced rum using Martin Cate's recipe, and it came out excellent, if I do say so myself (and I do). Very easy to do, and was a big hit with friends. We drank it neat, but I will start pondering cocktail recipes to use it with.

On 2009-11-23 11:25, arriano wrote:
OK, I made my own batch of spiced rum using Martin Cate's recipe, and it came out excellent, if I do say so myself (and I do). Very easy to do, and was a big hit with friends. We drank it neat, but I will start pondering cocktail recipes to use it with.

Now you know that there's something about homemade (besides the fact that you made it yourself) that makes it easily superior to even the best of the commercial stuff.

Drink up, me hardy, yo ho!

Someone beat me to it, making a DIY spiced rum thread 6 years earlier! Oh well, Ill revive it:

Usually I have a little spiced rum on hand (Sailor Jerry, mainly for guests) but I have been using it as the base for making pimento dram so Im out - so I decided to make some :)

I googled & found a recipe from Martin Cate.

Interesting the only difference between this recipe & the earlier Martin Cate recipe above is the ginger. Im going / have gone with the one I found.

I gathered the ingredients (shaving the white pith of the orange wasn't too hard)..

I put them in a jar..

I kept a little of the Appleton Special rum I started with to compare.

We'll see what happens!

I took the spices out of the rum (after 48 hours) & tried it...

It's quite good - it's definitely spiced rum now (you can taste the flavours of the different spices, orange in particular) but not as you know it (eg the vanilla is not the dominant taste).

There was nearly no colour difference but the rum had a little less alcohol sting to it. Interesting...

After a few neat tastes I stowed the rum in a small barrel for ageing which I am documenting in another thread & kept a sample for comparison - we'll see what happens in 3 months!

Hamo's homemade spiced rum, Day One:

Recipe to follow soon.