Cooking with rum

Can you boil rum and take out the alcohol before you baste a cake in it? (without ruining the rum flavor )
It gives a delicious taste but the way I used to make em,, they'd get you smashed

[osprey4]

Without ruining the flavor? I don't think so. But I've never gotten a buzz from rum cake. You must be giving that cake a pretty good charge!

[shahani]

Firstly you can't remove alcohol simply by boiling. Maybe some but not all.

Secondly, you'd have to eat an awful lot to get smashed. Maybe 20 pounds.

And as osprey4 says, boil rum and you ruin the aroma.

I know its asking a lot but you gonna share that cake with us here?

[Theophylact]

Well, you'd keep much of the flavor, but you'd probably have to make up the lost volume with water.

Flaring or boiling off the alcohol from rum or brandy is common; here's a variation on Bananas Flambées from Gourmet (I haven't tried this particular one).

CARAMELIZED BANANA WITH RUM SAUCE

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 10 min

2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 banana, halved lengthwise, then crosswise
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons rum (preferably dark)
2 teaspoons water
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sliced or chopped nuts, toasted

Accompaniment: vanilla ice cream

Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté banana, cut sides down, shaking skillet, 1 minute. Remove skillet from heat (away from flame) and sprinkle brown sugar around banana, then pour rum around banana. Return skillet to heat and continue to sauté, shaking skillet occasionally, until sugar begins to melt, about 30 seconds.

Add water, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt and cook over moderate heat, shaking skillet occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.

Serve banana hot, sprinkled with nuts.

Makes 1 serving.

[IC]

Originally posted by surreal
Can you boil rum and take out the alcohol before you baste a cake in it? (without ruining the rum flavor )
It gives a delicious taste but the way I used to make em,, they'd get you smashed

Take a look for a Rum flavouring essence.

http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/spirits/prestige.html

http://www.ibrew.com.au/pdf/EssenceLR.pdf

[Theophylact]

Like so many of IC's ideas, this won't work either. If you freeze an alcoholic beverage, you get two phases: ice (nearly pure, except for tiny amounts of occluded liquid), and a high-alcohol phase that contains everything else: flavor, color, alcohol, and a certain amount of water. That's the way you make applejack: by freezing hard cider and straining out the ice. If you save the ice phase and let it melt, you'll get a practically flavorless bunch of slightly colored water; the good stuff is all in the other phase.

[nomaxim]

Originally posted by surreal
Can you boil rum and take out the alcohol before you baste a cake in it? (without ruining the rum flavor )
It gives a delicious taste but the way I used to make em,, they'd get you smashed

Try Rum with a slightly lower proof, like 40 or 20 if you can find it.
151 Rum is not good for cooking, starting fires, or as an emergency gas supply for your car, are fine.

Originally posted by Theophylact
and a high-alcohol phase that contains everything else: flavor, color, alcohol, and a certain amount of water.

Yeah but in the winter in Michigan and those teenage years, that frozen bottle of cheap wine or beer is a straight shot to oblivion

Actually I've found that non drinkers will feel the rum on something like a cake soaked in a drizzle (about a half cup in a half hour) Even tho the feeling is slight and fleeting, someone that is a conservative, not too worldly tea totaler would think they were getting drunk. Perhaps because they don't know what a real drink feels like. Sensitive people like non drinkers can feel the alcohol in pretend beer. (I have)

OK the kind of cake? Well I recommend the Rum cake from the Bacardi site. But the one I'm making is..... duh duh duuuhhhh..

The DREADED CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE!! insert violins from psycho here

Yes, my name back then was Cheryl Gimenez

Honestly people that hate fruitcake like this stuff

Any difference in flavor burning or boiling? I'm thinking burning would be better...

honest! I'm not a pyromaniac!

[Theophylact]

Burning is more fun. But the flame goes out while there's still quite a lot of alky left.

(shahani's right, by the way; you can't remove all the alcohol by boiling (unless you remove all the liquid). From a physical chemistry point of view, you've got the equivalent of a one-theoretical-plate distillation column.)

[SPEEDO]

Why would you want to take perfectly good rum and pour it into a cake? Make a vanilla cake and drink the rum.......................