Hot Buttered Rum

​By Hilda Joy
​Images courtesy of Iren Schio
​Republished from January 2020

The New Year usually gets off to a very wet start—champagne or eggnog or punch, etc.  My personal preference to greet the New Year is hot-buttered rum.
 
This is a very old libation much loved by the American colonists, but it probably descended from drinks imbibed at the time in Merry Olde England, whose citizens loved quaffing hot spicy drinks in Winter.  One Colonial practice was to warm the ingredients by plunging a red-hot poker into the mug.  Rum was cheap and originated in nearby Caribbean islands, where sugar cane was grown with slave labor.  The cane was cooked down to molasses which was shipped to New England, where distilleries were built to turn molasses into rum.  Nowadays, the entire process usually takes place close to sugar-cane production not only in the Caribbean but also in Latin America.
 
Recently, good friends and I gathered around a blazing fire burning in a firepit set up in the snow and drank hot-buttered rum.  We did not feel the cold.
 
National Hot-Buttered Rum Day is coming up soon--January 17.  Get ready to celebrate by mixing up a batch of spicy hot-buttered rum mix per this recipe
​
​This drink is wonderful on a cold wintry day especially in front of a roaring fire—indoors or out.  It can be given to children without the rum, and it will soothe sore throats and reduce coughing.  A covered batch of hot-buttered rum mix can sit in the refrigerator for months and still be good.  Developed by a bartender in Oregon, this recipe was published in Gourmet magazine in the ‘60s.

The Mix:

​To prepare the hot-buttered rum mix:

2 cups butter, softened
4-1/2 cups brown sugar

In a stand mixer, cream softened butter with brown sugar until thoroughly blended

1-1/2 cups honey
   (preferably raw)
1/4 cup rum extract

Beat in honey and rum extract until thoroughly blended.
Note:  Mixture will be very thick.

2 tablespoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
   (all spices are ground)

Add ground spices, blending them in thoroughly.
 
Transfer mixture to a stone crock or glass jar or plastic container and refrigerate mixture, covered, until needed. ​

The Libation:

​To make a single serving of hot-buttered rum:

very hot tap water
hot-buttered rum mix

Warm a large mug with very hot tap water; when mug is warmed, discard hot water.  Spoon a generous dollop of hot-buttered rum mix into warmed mug.

dark flavorful rum
   (Rhum Barbancourt,
   made in Haiti, is
   recommended, but
   Meyer’s dark rum is fine)
boiling water

​Add an ounce or so of rum.  Fill mug half-way with boiling water; stir vigorously to dissolve hot-buttered rum mix and to incorporate rum.  Fill remainder of mug with boiling water and stir again.
 
A cinnamon stick makes a great swizzle stick.

​EnJOY