Rum and Raisin - 12 out of 10 !!

[MrCat]

This is without a shadow of a doubt the best steeped flavor I have done.
A great winter warmer too I made 750ml of this and it dissapeared very quickly so I\'ve just made 2 litres more.
Start with 1.5 litres of 40% and use the Essencia Dark Jamiacan rum to make a rum. Put this into a jar. This is your rum jar. Leave it for a week. 3 days after you\'ve put the rum to one side get 1/2 kg of sultanas (I know they aren\'t raisins..) put them into a jar and cover them with boling water. This is your steeping jar. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day. On the fourth day drain the liquid into another jar (this is your syrup jar). Add the rum. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day for a week.
Drain and filter your rum into your rum jar.
ok - here is where the recipe gets fun. Add a teaspoon of sugar to the sultanas and add a little boiling water (don\'t cover them with water). Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day - after a couple of days drain the liquid off into your syrup jar. Repeat this stage until the liquid you are draining off is clear.
Then the filtering starts.
You need to filter everything as there is a lot of sediment from the sultanas (I went through about 20 coffee filter papers..)
Once it\'s all filtered you then slowly add the contents of the syrup jar to your rum jar. I added about 100ml at a time until I got the taste I wanted.
You end up with a golden coloured sweetish spiced fruity rum with almost a liquer mouth feel.
Fantastic

[Opus 27]

That definately sounds like a must try! I\'m now wondering about \"Prunes\". I might try that first using your method.
Opus 27

[MrCat]

....

This is your steeping jar. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day. On the fourth day drain the liquid into another jar (this is your syrup jar). Add the rum to your steeping jar. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day for a week.

....

Just added a few words (in bold) as on reading back what I meant would not have been obvious to anyone else so it needed clarification.
This method has evolved over a few test runs using dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries and sultanas) - the first time I used dried fruit I didn\'t soak it first and \'lost\' loads of spirit
It should work with prunes too

[MrCat]

I was chatting to one of the guys at work about ways to improve the filtering (as it\'s the bit that takes time) and he suggested trying out a cafetiere.
I\'ll give that a go on the next run.

[MrCat]

Ok - I tried the cafetiere and it didn\'t work. The filter was not fine enough so it left most of the things I was trying to filter out in the solution. I tried adding a piece of filter paper to the bottom of the plunger but I wasn\'t able to get it smooth enough on the sides of the cafetiere and the liquid just found a way past.
Managed to triple the filter rate though with a \'old school\' solution. I bought three sieves, three measuring jugs and plenty of coffee filter papers and ran three filters at once...
Just made a gallon and it\'s even nicer that the last batches.

[jahtubs]

Hi MrCat bio diesel filter bags might work. You can buy them in sets of 3 on ebay and set up a triple filter with each one progressively finer. You just hang them up and leave them to get on with it.

[Phantom]

Bloody hell..... Rum and Raisin! Now that\'s a \"blast from the past\". I remember as a kit, the bars of chocolate, the ice cream etc etc.
I hope to have enough time and motivation to try this as it\'s one of those tastes and flavours that I really enjoy but had forgotten about.
Well done MrCat.
Ha! just re-read through it. I wonder whether it\'ll be easier or cheaper to get a cone holder and the coffe filter papers, or just use a course set of filter pads for my mini-jet (about £2.50 per pack and will filter (normally) 5 gallons of wine to \"final polish\") ?

[Phantom]

Ha ha! :-D just ordered a 1 micron filter bag. Should do the trick eh! Probably easier/cheaper than buying a coffee filter and cone holder or wasting a whole set of pads on some.
Once I know whether it makes the flavour/taste as I remember it (or not) I\'ll know.
Either way, as it\'s a 1 micron bag and it\'s washable, I\'ll be able to use it for stuff that I know I don\'t need to worry about oxidation etc.....
Brilliant! well suggested jahtubs

[Phantom]

Bit of confirmation please MrCat......

Start with 1.5 litres of 40% and use the Essencia Dark Jamiacan rum to make a rum. Put this into a jar. This is your rum jar. Leave it for a week. 3 days after you\'ve put the rum to one side get 1/2 kg of sultanas (I know they aren\'t raisins..) put them into a jar and cover them with boling water. This is your steeping jar. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day. On the fourth day drain the liquid into another jar (this is your syrup jar). Add the rum. Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day for a week.

Not sure if I\'ve got essencia rum or one of the SS ones, I\'ll use whatever I\'ve got. Presumably, putting the rum into a jar is the "ageing" bit that essencia flavours need?
How much water to the 1/2 kilo raisins or sultanas ?
After straining the "steeping" liquid off the fruit, that\'s when it\'s mixed with the rum ?
Is there any reason for the shaking and waiting a week once the steeped liquid and rum have been mixed ?

Drain and filter your rum into your rum jar.
ok - here is where the recipe gets fun. Add a teaspoon of sugar to the sultanas and add a little boiling water (don\'t cover them with water). Give the jar a good shake 3 or 4 times a day - after a couple of days drain the liquid off into your syrup jar. Repeat this stage until the liquid you are draining off is clear.

Just a single teaspoon ? How much water ? A rough guide as to how many times this was done to get "clear" liquid ?

Then the filtering starts.
You need to filter everything as there is a lot of sediment from the sultanas (I went through about 20 coffee filter papers..)
Once it\'s all filtered you then slowly add the contents of the syrup jar to your rum jar. I added about 100ml at a time until I got the taste I wanted.
You end up with a golden coloured sweetish spiced fruity rum with almost a liquer mouth feel.
Fantastic

Damn! I do hope so - that\'s a lot of stages to complete.
Either way, I\'m a bit confused.
So before I think about the filtering stage.....
I should have what in the rum jar ? the actual rum, the original steeping liquid and also the flavoured sugar/water from the second part of the steeping process ?
Wouldn\'t it be easier to just rehydrate the raisins/sultanas with some water (so they don\'t take up some of the spirit) and then put them (minus any residual rehydration liquid) into the rum and draw out the flavour that way ? Then it should be possible to strain off the fruit and either press it or "wring it out" in a straining bag or similar and then add sugar to sweeten it ?
Sorry if this is confusing the issue, but I\'d really like to give it a try but haven\'t managed to get it straight in my head as to which stage needs to be done when and the quantities have thrown me a bit.....
TVM for any clarification....

[MrCat]

I used the Essencia dark Jamaican rum as it makes a rum that I like. It has a strong flavour and I'm not sure if a weaker flavour rum would retain it's taste after the final blending. You are right that the "leave the rum for a week" is to allow the flavour to develop.
How much water to rehydrate the sultanas? Enough to cover the sultanas.
You have three jars.
A rum jar (which has the rum after it's spent a week in with the soaked raisins)

A syrup jar that has the sugar/water solution after you've steeped it for a few days

A steeping jar that has the sultanas in.
Will it help if I 'timeline' what you do ??
Day one is make the rum in your rum jar.

Day three soak the sultanas in your steeping jar. Shake the jar a few times a day.

Day seven filter the liquid from your steeping jar into your syrup jar.

Day seven pour your rum into the steeping jar. Shake the jar a few times a day.

Day 14 filter the rum from your steeping jar back into your rum jar.

** at this point you can mix the sultana water from your syrup jar into your rum jar **

Day 14 add water + sugar to the steeping jar. Shake a few times a day.

Day 16/17 filter the liquid from the steeping jar into your syrup jar.

** at this point you can start mixing the filterered syrup into your rum jar to taste **

Repeat the last stage until the liquid from the steeping jar is clear.
At this point you will have a rum jar whose contents have been in contact with the rehydrated sultanas and nothing else.

A syrup jar that has sultana flavoured sugar water

A steeping jar with sultanas.
Have a taste of the rum jar. You might already like the flavour but IMHO it's quite a 'thin' taste.

Then mix some of the syrup jar with the rum jar. Taste it - see if you like it. Keep on mixing in the syrup with the rum jar until you get a taste/mouthfeel you like.
I’ve added two steps marked with ** ** These are a bit of a short cut that I used on the my last run.

Wouldn't it be easier to just rehydrate the raisins/sultanas with some water (so they don't take up some of the spirit) and then put them (minus any residual rehydration liquid) into the rum and draw out the flavour that way ? Then it should be possible to strain off the fruit and either press it or "wring it out" in a straining bag or similar and then add sugar to sweeten it ?

Yep. No reason why that shouldn't work - you may need to leave the rum steeping for a bit longer though as a lot of the flavour is drawn out by the sugar/water.
If you are after it in a hurry you could just rehydrate the sultanas, add the rum, leave it for a couple of weeks (shaking it a few times a day), filter it and then use glycerine to get the right mouth feel.
I always end up with more syrup than I need so you can decide where in the ‘add sugar and water’ phase you want to stop.
Is that a bit clearer/easier to understand ??
I think the tricky part for me was that I wasn\'t given a proper recipe when I stared steeping stuff - it is very much trial and error and seeing what you like and what works for you.

[Phantom]

Brilliant, TVM.... just got to get a batch run off now.
regards
P.

[metalmickey]

Ive just tried the recipe and its great. io wasnt a rum drinker till i saw this. the only way id ever drink it was with coke.
Now it tastes great, not too sweet, but with a subtle sweeteness that takes the rawness from the alcohol. The mix of syrup wasnt as over the top as the icecreamn, but definately a pleasant hint of raisin. Great recipe

Big Fan.

I filtered the syrup through 1 micron filter bags from "thefilterbagman" on ebay. bought today,arrived tomorrow seller. You could almost cut the filters down to fit a cafatierre as the sacks are so big. 3 for a tenner in delivery.

Cheers. Kraken good Rum

[Normski]

Be Warned - Sultanas Make an I.E.D.

This post inspired me to try to maserate a few things to make my own flavourings.
I soaked some Sultanas in water for a few days, then drianed them and resoaked them in spirit. The water I kept as it was lovely and sweet, I used some of the water and spirit to add to my spiced rum, It worked well.

But Be Warned.....

Although I filtered the sultana water through coffee filters, it still had a little sediment. I stored this in a small ex covonia bottle in a cupboard. About a week later....

There was an almighty Kaboom...
It exploaded making a big sticky mess. Im glad it was in a cupboard as that contained it.

So Be Warned - Sultanas Make an I.E.D.
Be careful out there.

[MrCat]

Weird - I've used sultanas every time I've made this and never had a problem.

It sounds like you got a secondary fermentation going there which shouldn't happen unless your ABV in the sultana water ended up under 10%...

[Normski]

Weird - I've used sultanas every time I've made this and never had a problem.

It sounds like you got a secondary fermentation going there which shouldn't happen unless your ABV in the sultana water ended up under 10%...

Hi MC
Yep. It was the syrup jar that went bang. It didnt have any spirit in it, just the sultana water. As you say, it must have started to ferment. Made an almightly bang. Everything else that I've maserated, I've left in spirit. It was just that the syrup water tasted so good i didnt want to chuck it.