Post-Thanksgiving Cure: Hot Buttered Rum
hot buttered rum would be right at home here
image via Retrofuture
One has to be in a particular sort of mood for hot alcoholic drinks. Usually, I’d rather pour a glass of red wine, slip off my shoes, and sit by a fire, but hot buttered rum keeps purring its siren song in my ear.
The idea first popped into my head following an afternoon in dusty bookshops. With cold fingertips, we finally pushed open the door into a tavern with Christmas lights in the window, only to discover it wasn’t a hot buttered rum-friendly establishment. Instead, we drank a Yuenglings and listened to tales of their french fries being the best in the county.
But the next day, after a long walk in the slanting light of the afternoon, geese overhead, the hot buttered rum was still tempting me. Back in my mom’s kitchen, I pulled out a stained copy of the Joy of Cooking. The recipe couldn’t be simpler or more warming. I shared a cup over four games of Pente and lost every one. And I don’t think the rum can take the fall for that.
Hot Buttered Rum
adapted from Joy of Cooking
Serves 1
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon butter
Pour run into a teacup. Add water and sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Float butter on top and stir. You could gussy this up with a clove-spiked wedge of orange, a cinnamon stick, or by using honey or maple syrup instead of sugar.
Sara Rose: I pretty much adore hot buttered rum.39 weeks ago
beth: this series of retro photos in your last few posts is great!39 weeks ago
it’s because i forgot to take a picture of the hot buttered rum that there’s not one here! whoops!39 weeks ago
Margo: Yes! Except that I always use brown sugar though.39 weeks ago
Suzanne F.: I’ve never heard of anyone else who knew about Pente. My husband & I found our board back in 1977 in a funky little shop in Springfield, Ma. Now we’ll have to make hot buttered rum & have a game! (or 3, I rule at Pente)39 weeks ago
Jesse Lu: I made this like crazy last year while on holiday at my mom’s farm in Montana…39 weeks ago
Evon T.: Don’t you just love Pente? Gosh, I received that as a Christmas gift in high school. My sister and I used to play all the time. I wonder where it is now. I love that game.39 weeks ago
Natalie: Love, love hot buttered rum. I make a somewhat more spiced version I adapted from an Emeril recipe I found on-line. In his version you basically make a batter by whipping butter, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg together. The largest change I made to the recipe involved substituting dehydrated cane juice for the brown sugar. Here’s my recipe: http://commontricks.blogspot.com/2008/10/hot-buttered-rum.html39 weeks ago
Margo, Brown sugar would be a great change. Or maple sugar….yum.
Suzanne, This was my first time playing Pente and let’s just say I wasn’t exactly a whiz. But I absolutely loved playing it in front of the fire and drinking hot buttered rum — it was just such a cozy evening!
Jesse, Yes, I can see these being right at home in Montana.
Evon, It’s worth digging out of the game closet. So much fun!
Natalie, Before I posted this today, I was tooling around the internet looking at other versions, and it seems like the “batter” approach is a popular method and it sounds delicious. The advantage of this bare bones method is that you don’t have to clean the mixer which, post-Thanksgiving, is a boon.
39 weeks ago
Natalie: Hadn’t thought of using maple sugar. That sounds like it would be out of this world.39 weeks ago