Hot Buttered and Honeyed Rum

Last fall, my family all met up in New York for my mom’s birthday. My sister lives there, my mom wanted to visit, and my boyfriend and I flew in to drink wine, give presents, but mostly just to see each other, and relish in the amazingness that is my mom. 

We are a family of major food lovers and so we found ourselves eating out every meal, sourcing out interesting cheeses and hunting down the best pickles in Brooklyn. There are a crazy amount of pickle makers in Brooklyn. It’s a little bit astounding. What do they do with them all?

At one point, though, it was just my boyfriend and I in a little place called Arthur’s on Smith, in Carroll Gardens. We had just popped in for a cocktail, but they bought us a little bit of bread to soak it up.
Friends, this bread was borderline life changing. It was the best nutty, fruity bread I have ever had, and it came with a little chunk of butter that was sitting in a pool of honey and sprinkled with flakey Maldon salt.
It was the simplest thing, but it was incredible.

Since that fateful day, I have been putting honey, butter and salt on everything. On bread, muffins, cakes and crumpets. It’s just the best combination. So good, in fact, I felt like I could drink it.

And it turns out I can.

I had never made a hot buttered rum until recently, and oh my lord they are good. They are super simple, you simply mix some soft butter with some spices, poor the rum o top and then add some boiling water on top.

The butter softens the flavour of the rum and adds a thickness to the drink you wouldn’t expect. It is at once the drink for cold gal nights, while watching the trees change colour.

Hot Buttered Rum
(makes 4 mugs)

• 1/4 cup Butter,softened
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tbsp Cinnamon
• Pinch of Dried Ground Ginger
• Pinch of Dried Ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 8 oz Rum
• Hot Water

In a small bowl mix together everything except the rum and water. Place a dollop (about 1 1/2 tsp) of the butter mixture at the bottom of 4 mugs. Pour in 2 ounces of rum into each mug, and then top with hot water.