Ask your customers if they've ever cooked with rum? Tell them to forget for a minute about the booze-soaked cake they baked during the holidays or the ice-cream-topped bananas that foster they flambéd during Mardi Gras season. Think savory. Those same rich flavors of molasses, caramel, and spice that rum gives to Tiki sips and stirred Old Fashioneds can add new dimensions to everything from pan-glazed pork to delicate seafood dishes.
The first rule of rum in the kitchen is picking the right bottle. Aged and dark rums are ideal when cooking dishes with strong flavors such as beef stews or pork, while white rums are often used for cooking seafood or poultry.
Another rule: No matter the style, pick a high-quality brand, as a cheap hooch will make dishes taste bitter. Sip some before dousing recipes or mix it into a cocktail set next to your mise en place. Vetting the bottle assures both quality control and a happy chef.
Perhaps the easiest way to incorporate rum into cuisine is using it to deglaze the pan after sautéing meat or fish. Depending on the rum, you can get a stronger or lighter flavor after the alcohol is completely evaporated.
But you don’t always have to burn off all (or any) of the alcohol. Rum can also be used when sautéing dishes with short cooking times. Note that all of the flavors will remain in the sauce and the rum gives a different and unexpected aroma. If you want to use the spirit in a cold sauce or dressing, it is best to start with just a few drops until the desired flavor is achieved.
Of course, the complexity of an aged rum makes for a robust paste used to marinate pork or chicken. A good place to start is to incorporate some of the notes inherent in the spirit (brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon) and others that are synergistic (ancho, cumin, coriander, jalapeños).
Rum is a fantastic addition to any chef's cooking repertoire, because there’s so much flavor in it...and each style can be used in a specific way. Aged rum lends caramel notes to dishes, while white rums can give a pleasing alcohol bite, and spiced rum is a no-brainer for cakes. When working with hearty proteins like short ribs or beef that you plan on stewing for a long time, you can treat rum just like you would wine. The rum melds with the juices of the meat to develop incredible flavor.
When it comes to cooking with rum, you can’t completely eschew the sweet. Consider a Caribbean-inspired Cinnamon French Toast topped with maple syrup infused with dark-aged rum. At the end of the day, encourge customers to be creative with it. When you cook with rum, it ultimately serves you well as an accentuating element, not necessarily the focal point.
Below are two more recipes with rum to try.
Flambé Pork Tenderloin
Marinated pork is sautéed, and then the pan drippings are deglazed with rum before being cooked down with heavy cream. An aged spirit ramps up the dish’s spicy flavors.
12 oz pork tenderloin medallions
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
6 tbsp olive oil
6 oz aged rum
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Serves 2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, cumin, oregano and garlic. Pour the mixture over pork medallions, toss to coat, and marinate for 20 minutes. Remove the pork from the marinade, season with salt, and sauté in a pan on medium heat until it turns brown. Flambé it with the rum, and reduce the sauce for 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the heavy cream, and cook slowly for 7 to 8 minutes. Serve pork with the sauce.
Rum Marinade
The ingredients in this marinade draw out the spice, caramel, and citrus notes in an aged or dark rum. Even scaled-down, this still makes a rather large batch; feel free to mix the dry ingredients separately and keep them in a container in your spice cabinet until ready to mix with the jalapeño and garlic. Or make the entire recipe and freeze it in plastic bags or containers so it’s ready for you to fire up the grill.
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cups ground black pepper
1/3 cups ancho powder
1/3 cups whole cumin seed, toasted and ground
1/3 cups light brown sugar
1/3 cup whole coriander seed, toasted and ground
2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
9 oz jalapeño peppers, minced
6 oz minced garlic
1 cup dark rum
Combine all the dry ingredients with jalapeño and garlic. Add the rum to the mixture to create a paste. Rub on chicken or pork, and let marinate overnight.
