So here we are, a little over two weeks after the last Pimento Dram post.
The ground-up allspice berries have been steeping in the 151 proof rum the entire time, with almost daily agitation (which means that when I remember, I shook the crap out of the mason jar).
I finally got the kitchen cleaned up enough to take pictures, so it was time to move on to the next step, which is to add the sugar, and bottle it.
Below is a picture of the mason jar, along with a 2 3/4 lb container of demerara sugar.
The original recipe calls
for brown sugar and 151 proof Demerara rum, but since I couldn't find
151 proof Demerara rum in Dallas (shoot, I couldn't even find Demerara
rum period!), I figured my next best option was 151 proof rum and
Demerara sugar.
At this stage, the process is to strain out the allspice solids from the liquid. I decided that while Mr. Taggart's instructions about straining it, then passing it through a coffee filter were nice, I don't have that sort of patience, so I just took the basket out of my coffeemaker, and set it on the carafe, and ran the whole allspice/rum mixture through a double-layer of coffee filters, while I made dinner.
Karen says that I should mention that I washed the coffee maker stuff before doing this process (and after) to remove any coffee flavor remnants.
I poured the resulting mixture into two rum bottles that I'd saved especially for this purpose. (take note- Mt. Gay & Ron Matusalem are the ABSOLUTE best for Mojitos and Daiquiris).
I did however mostly obey the rules on the next part- his recipe calls for 2 1/2 lbs of sugar and 3 cups water. I decided that sweeter is probably better, and put the extra 4 oz of sugar in with the water.
I did do one thing that the recipe doesn't call for, but that I've found helps with making sugar syrups. I added about a small lemon's worth of lemon juice. The idea here is that if you boil sugar in an acidic solution, you'll convert some percentage of the sugar into invert sugar. Basically what happens is that some portion of the sucrose molecules get split into fructose and glucose by the combination of the heat and acid. This accomplishes two things- first, it makes the syrup sweeter than plain sucrose, and second, it prevents the syrup from crystallizing, which was my main goal here.
I then boiled the resulting mix for roughly 10 minutes on low, and let it cool down.
Once it was cooled down, I poured it back into the carafe that had previously held the filtered rum/allspice mixture, with the hope of getting every last little bit of the allspice/rum mixture that I could.
I then decanted the sugar syrup roughly equally into the two bottles that already had the rum/allspice mixture.
I
must have gone overboard with the rum earlier, because the recipe says
that it'll fill two "scant" 750 ml bottles, but I filled both of mine
completely full, and had a cup or so of syrup left over.
And the waiting game continues.... I'm supposed to let this stuff sit and marinate for a month or so.
Stay tuned for more booze/food posts! Coming soon - Vodka taste-off, and hopefully a mention on Mixology Monday, some obscure drinks found in "The Craft of the Cocktail" and "Imbibe!", which are my two cocktail books, and possibly a bourbon taste-off as well!
-M
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