American Rum 7. Before Jerry Thomas

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AMERICAN RUM 7. Before Jerry Thomas

In taverns and at home, large quantities of rum were drunk in many different concoctions, with a wide variety of ingredients. The habit of mixing rum with many other ingredients made it possible to conceal the taste and smell of rum while keeping intact its alcoholic strength. Moreover, these concoctions had a nutritional value and were also a sort of comfort drink, especially in the long, bitterly cold winters of New England.

One of the most popular mixtures was, naturally, PUNCH. Basically it was made from 5 main ingredients: water, spirits, citrus fruits, sugar and spices. Punch was a constant presence in the British social life of XVIII Century, and British settlers in Continental America adopted it with great passion, using mostly rum as its spirit ingredient. It was consumed in great quantities, cold or hot. People drank Punch at home and in taverns, at balls and weddings, at parties, militia musters, club gatherings and every kind of social events. To some of these events women were allowed, therefore it gradually became socially acceptable for them to drink alcohol in Punch. Eventually the very vessel, the bowl, became more and more elaborately decorated, embellished with precious metals and decorative motifs.

“One in particular was called a Monteith, and came into fashion about 1697. The rim was scalloped to facilitate the carrying of the punch ladle, lemon strainer and tall wine glasses which were hung about the bowl ”.

Then there was the so-called BLACK-STRAP, basically made of rum, molasses, vinegar and other ingredients whose memory we have lost, perhaps without regrets. “Casks of black-strap stood in every country store and tavern, and usually there hung alongside a salted codfish, craftly displayed to tempt by thirst additional purchasers of the beverage”. And they drank GROG too, the famous mixture of rum and water invented by British Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740.

One other favorite colonial drink was TODDY, made of rum, hot water and sugar. To stir up the toddy, a toddy stick was used, “beloved for the welcome ringing music it made on the sides of glass tumbler… The toddy stick was six or eight inches long, with either a knob on one end or flattened out at the end, so that it would easily crush the loaf sugar then used in drinks”.

Then there was a drink with a strange, unpleasant name: CALLI BOGUS or BOGUS , made of cold rum and beer. But the contest for the worst name was surely won by WHISTLE - BELL Y-VENGEANCE, made with hot sour beer, molasses, brown-bread crumbs and rum!

With cider and rum they made the simple and pleasant STONE-WALL, while sailors loved SWITCHEL , a mixture of molasses and water, with vinegar and rum.

But the most popular Colonial rum drink was FLIP, which deserves some extensive  quotes.

The quotes, like the others in this article, are from Rum, Romance and Rebellion,  published by Charles William Taussig in 1928, during Prohibition. I love this book and I think it should be printed again. 

Flip “…was made in a great pewter mug or ear then pitcher filled two- thirds full of strong beer and sweetened with sugar, molasses, orc dried pumpkin, according to taste. To this was added a gill of New England Rum. Into the mixture was thrust a red-hot loggerhead which was used to stir it. The loggerhead was made of iron and shaped like a poker, and when this sizzling device came into contact with the beer and rum, the liquor foamed, bubbled and collared and took on a burnt, bitter taste which was particularly relished”.

Sometimes a fresh egg was beaten into it, and then the drink was called BELLOWS TOP. Many other ingredients were added too, as we can read in one Colonial recipe:

“Keep grated Ginger and Nutmeg with a fine Lemon Peel rubbed together in Mortar. To make a quart of Flip: Put the Ale on the Fire to warm, and beat up three o four Eggs with four ounces of moisty Sugar, a teaspoonful of grated Nutmeg or Ginger, and a Quartern of good old Rum or Brandy. When the Ale is near to boil, put it into the pitcher and the Rum and Eggs, etc., into another ; turn it from one Pitcher to another till it is as smooth as cream. To heat, plunge in the red hot Loggerheads or Poker. This quantity is styled One Yard of Flannel ”.

I don’t know about you, but in reading this recipe I can feel the passion of the accomplished drinker, his delight in making himself something good to drink. Innkeepers and drinkers’ imagination was boundless: from the very beginning, America has been the homeland of cocktails, long before Jerry Thomas came along.

Loggerheads were always kept by blazing fireplaces. In taverns, and also in the most hospitable homes, you could always find hot loggerheads, ready to warm a bed, dry a coat or prepare a fresh Flip.

And sometimes loggerheads had also other uses:

“ in the not infrequent tavern-brawls. The loggerheads which rested against the chimney-piece were quickly seized and served as useful and potent weapons; this gave rise to the term ‘at loggerheads’.”

Marco Pierini

-Article written by Marco Pierini- 

My name is Marco Pierini, I was born in 1954 in a little town in Tuscany (Italy) where a still live. I got a degree in Philosophy in Florence and I studied Political Science in Madrid, but my real passion has always been History. And through History I have always tried to know the world, and men. Life brought me to work in tour ism, event organization and vocational training. Then I discovered rum. With Francesco Rufini, I founded La Casa del Rum (The House of Rum),that runs a beach bar and selects and distributes Premium Rums in Italy, www.lacasadelrum.it. And finally I have returned back to my initial passion: History. But now it is the History of Rum. Because Rum is not only a great distillate, it’s a world. Produced in scores of countries, by thousands of companies, with an extraordinary variety of aromas and flavors; it has a terrible and fascinating history, made of slaves and pirates, imperial fleets and revolutions. All this I try to cover in this column, in my FB profile, www.facebook/marco.pierini.3 and in my articles on the Italian webpage www.bartender.it .