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Drink

Bay Rum

A sweetened bay-flavored spirit made by infusing oil of bay with sugar and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and spirit work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Bay Rum

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Roll the sugar until fine.

  2. Beat the fine sugar into the oil of bay.

Blend and steep

  1. Add the alcohol, then the New England rum and rectified spirits.

  2. Let it stand for several days in a demijohn, shaking occasionally.

Filter

  1. Filter through blotting paper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Rum + spirittop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oil of bay
Provides the characteristic bay aroma that defines the spirit.
Loaf sugar
Adds a little sweetness to balance the strong aromatic oils and alcohol.
New england rum
Contributes its own rum flavour to the blend.
95% alcohol
Dissolves the aromatic oil of bay so it blends evenly into the liquid.

The step that matters

Beat the fine sugar into the oil of bay. Sugar needs to be finely ground so it disperses evenly into the oil rather than settling in gritty lumps. Thorough mixing before the alcohol is added helps the oil stay blended.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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