Rum Caviar tutorial recipe
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Rum Caviar is lightly sweetened rum in the form of little golden spheres, just like fish eggs. They stay like that until you eat them, and then they melt deliciously in your mouth with all that rum flavor.
Absolutely fantastic, and so fun! They’re like a much more adult and sophisticated version of Vodka Gummy Bears!
You’ll need:
- Vegetable oil
- Dark rum
- Brown sugar
- Agar-agar powder (which can be found in Asian markets, or the ethnic section of some grocery stores, or you can just buy it from Amazon)
- A tall, narrow drinking glass
- An eye dropper – or this specialized caviar maker that’s made for molecular gastronomy
How to Make Rum Caviar
Fill a highball glass with vegetable oil. The taller your glass is, the better, because this is what the hot rum mixture needs to travel through to cool off and solidify.
(Note that the vegetable oil can be re-used: just chill it in between batches, and filter it if it gets goopy. )
If the glass is too short, the spheres may join at the bottom and you’ll have one giant lump of rum jelly. Place the glass of oil in the freezer and chill for 30 minutes.
When 30 minutes is up, stir 3/4 cup dark rum and 2 grams agar-agar powder in a saucepan on high heat until it begins to boil. Quickly add 1/4 cup brown sugar, stir to dissolve sugar, bring back to a boil, and remove from heat.
The sugar adds density to the rum and makes it sink in the oil. Without it, your rum would float at the top and make little half-spheres.
Let the rum mixture sit for about 2 minutes and remove the vegetable oil from the freezer.
The Eye Dropper or Caviar Maker
Suck up the rum mixture in an eye dropper and squeeze little drops of the mixture into the cold oil, making sure to keep your hand moving at all times to prevent one big ball from forming at the bottom. That is, don’t put every drop right into the middle of your oil’s surface.
As the rum collects into spheres, it will become heavy and drop through the oil, cool off, and lay waiting for you to scoop it up from the bottom. Work quickly because the rum will solidify in the saucepan.
If this does happen, you can melt it again on low heat, being sure to stir constantly, and continue the spherification process.
Once you’re finished, either scoop the balls out with a small slotted spoon or pour through a mesh sieve or cheesecloth to collect the spheres from the oil. Drop them in cold water for a few seconds to wash the oil off and you’re ready to go.
Optional: if you’re making a big batch and don’t want to go to the hassle of making little balls, you can just let the mixture cool and solidify in the sauce pan, then put it through a food processor. It comes out looking like little shards of glass, which is also really cool-looking.
What it Tastes Like
Rum Caviar has a milder flavor than liquid rum and hardly any sweetness from the brown sugar.
How to Use It
There are so many ways! Use it in cocktails that call for rum. Because the rum caviar has a little sugar and agar-agar weighing it down, and a little of the rum burns off in the cooking, use a 1.5 to 1 ratio. That is, if a cocktail calls for 1 ounce of rum, try 1 1/2 ounces of rum caviar.
Serve it in a bowl with a spoon. Served this way, it captures the feel of caviar – or dessert. And this goes over well at parties.
Put it over ice cream. Add any other toppings you want, and this becomes a really fun boozy sundae!
It can also be a way to serve rum cocktails to drinking and non-drinking guests. Just make a batch of no-alcohol drinks, and spoon in some of the Rum Caviar for your drinking guests. People will love it!
Storage
Store it in an airtight container, in the fridge, with a few tablespoons of water at the bottom. They should last at least several weeks, based on the ingredients and their shelf life. But ideally you should make them a few days or less before you’re planning to serve, just to be safe.
Rum Caviar
Rum Caviar is a fun molecular gastronomy treat. It tastes just like rum, but the beads pop in your mouth like fish eggs.
Ingredients
- 32 oz vegetable oil
- 750 ml dark rum (1 standard bottle)
- 16 oz Brown sugar
- 4 oz agar-agar powder
- A tall, narrow drinking glass
- An eye dropper
Instructions
- Fill your tall, narrow glass with vegetable oil.
- Place the glass of oil in the freezer and chill for 30 minutes.
- Stir 3/4 cup dark rum and 2 grams agar-agar powder in a saucepan on high heat until it begins to boil.
- Quickly add 1/4 cup brown sugar, stir to dissolve sugar, bring back to a boil, and remove from heat.
- Let the rum mixture sit for about 2 minutes and remove the vegetable oil from the freezer.
- Suck up the rum mixture in an eye dropper and squeeze little drops of the mixture into the cold oil.
- Once you're finished, either scoop the balls out with a small slotted spoon or pour through a mesh sieve or cheesecloth to collect the spheres from the oil.
- Drop them in cold water for a few seconds to wash the oil off and you're ready to go.
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