Rumpot?

Sean said in a thread somewhere :

A rumpot is a large ceramic airtight vessel into which one seasonally adds fruit, rum and sugar in "layers" over the course of the year, resulting in a large quantity of lush tasting fruity rum liqueur sometime around xmas.

- Though I have heard other people say it results in Rum tasting fruit around xmas.

Jim

A Rumpot is sort of a labour of love and patience. Beginning in the earliest part of summer, fruits as the come into season: strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blackberries, plums, peaches, apricots are added in layers to a crock. With each layer is a liberal amount of sugar, and is then covered with a good quality dark rum. (the fruit is often weighted down with a plate to keep it submerged in the rum.) At the end of the summer season, the crock is stored away in a dark cook place until Christmas time.

Abby

It's gorgeos mate! Plus with the stills that are also for sale the cost of the alcohol is low!

There's some nice stuff about them and a free recipe here.

You can use any container to make the stuff as long as it's not porous and food grade! A big coffee jar works well and is cheap!

Peter

Well! This is quite a wonderful concept. I like it.

I gotta get a rumtopf. I suppose any good ceramic jug with a tight lid would work? How about glass? Is light a concern?

MeToo!! Wait... I already did, this morning. I hope glass is good, I just bought a nice big glass ??jar/canister?? at Wally World for $7. I plan on keeping it in a cupboard so I don't think light will be a problem.

Any good ceramic jug or crock will do nicely, basically anything non porous and wide mouthed. Light is a concern, because the colours will leach out. So, either find something opaque, or put a thin cardboard or paper "collar" around the jar, even thought the rumpot should be stored someplace dark and cool.

Also, if your heart is set upon a rumtopf, keep an eye on ebay. I've seen them turn up there from time to time.

Enjoy!

Abby

It all goes sort of brown anyway. I've made it in glass and in a rumpot. It doesn't make any difference. I suppose if it was in direct sun it might fade but I've seen it in Spain on windowsills and it looks alright. Perhaps they drink it quick! You have got to watch that it's airtight or the alcohol escapes. Also anything really seedy is not nice. I think I used redcurrants once and the seeds were really hard. The actual rumpots are lovely and I've seen them in a restaurant in Germany. They brought it out at the end of the meal and dolloped it up with thick cream. Yummy! Cheers Peter

Mit Schlag! I like it. So you eat the fruit and everything? It's not just for drinking then?

On my way to get a Rumtopf, BB

Rum pot - its not just for drinking :) It is actually more like a fruit compote. The rum flavoured liqueur at the end is a bonus.

Abby

there is a lot of truth in what you say, Peter. The fruit does not retain all of its natural colour - the pictures I have seen of rumtopf with the recipes I have found for it really don't have a lot of similarity to the "real deal". There are a lot of factors involved in the final colour - the colour of the fruit for example - a lot of dark fruit will make a darker end result. As well the colour of the rum - a dark or black rum, will make the end result darker than say an amber or golden. One thing for sure though: Use the rum with the highest percentage of alcohol by volume you can get your hands on. The most readily available in North America is 40% alcohol by volume, however, in Europe, nothing less than 54% alcohol by volume is used.

Then the fruits: red currents are seedy, but some like them. I think this summer, I will try dipping any fruit that will oxidize (Peaches, nectarines, apricots)in a bit of lemon juice before I add them. It will do no harm, and might help retain the colour. Apples are too hard, I think, but pears, providing they are perfectly ripe, might work, (not as easy as you might think: some varieties of pear can go from perfectly ripe to over ripe in as little as an afternoon.) Citrus is a definite no no, but I've seen recipes that use cubed fresh pineapple.

Now about sunlight: I have put down literally hundreds of jars of preserves over the years: Jams, conserves, jellies, fruit butters, bottled fruit, pickles, you name it. I would no more keep those on a sunny window sill than anyone here would keep wine there. The colours fade and turn a very unappetizing brown very quickly. I really can't speak to what you saw in Spain, though I do not doubt what your words, but storing it on a window sill makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Abby

Besides all the good recipes for making a Rumpot that are posted here Believe we used to use the expression for old sailors that liked a little to much alcohol??

Rumpot is a mixture of fruit and sugar you keep on adding fruit and about Christmas it is done 90% Alcohol but when you make it use plastwrap for the lid that way it will not blow up