Match of the week
Duck and rum
OK, this sounds like THE most unlikely pairing but bear with, as they say …
For a start the occasion was a spirits and cocktail lunch hosted by The Whisky Exchange where we were drinking their spirits of the year which included Four Square’s sumptuously rich Doorley’s 14 year old rum from Barbados. The kind of drink, you’d think, that you’d pair with chocolate or a dessert like the Dulce de Leche fondant pudding they were also serving at Sucre (which is where the lunch took place)
But TWE’s Dawn Davies who was sitting next to me reckoned it went really well with the duck and because she used to be a somm I had to try the two. And indeed it did, not least because it was accompanied by two sweet elements, chestnuts and roast pumpkin. You’d need to be a bit measured about it as it’s a hefty 48% but it wears its alcohol lightly
It made me think that if it dark rum worked with that dish it would also go brilliantly with a glazed Christmas ham. Worth a try anyway!
See also:
The best pairings for rum and rum-based cocktails
I attended the lunch as a guest of The Whisky Exchange.
Steak with an Old Fashioned
Red wine is such an established go to with steak that it’s hard to consider anything else as a pairing but it struck me this week after a few days tasting rum with Philippines producer Don Papa (yes, it’s a hard life … ) that dark rum might also be an interesting match.
Don Papa is a rich dark small batch rum that I thought would go well with the caramelised surface of a grilled steak - and so it proved when we tried it at Elbert’s Steak Room in Makati - the upmarket CBD of Manila. It was especially good on the rocks but I reckon an even better pairing would be an Old Fashioned cocktail made with the same 7 year old rum.
Would you actually order it at a steak restaurant though? I don’t see why not if it’s a drink you enjoy. If you didn’t feel like having it during a meal it would also be good with a bar snack of a couple of sliders, a burger or a steak sandwich
*If you want to run up the cocktail yourself the Don Papa team call it the Don Fashioned and it’s 50ml (2 shots) of Don Papa, 1/2 a bar spoon or teaspoon of agave syrup and 2 dashes of Angostura bitters. Pour the ingredients into a tumbler filled with ice, stir and garnish with an orange twist - and a maraschino cherry, if you fancy it though the version I tried was excellent without one.
My 5 top wine and steak pairing tips
I visited the Philippines as a guest of Don Papa rum.
Dark chocolate and Guatemalan rum
Another good chocolate pairing this week - plain dark chocolate and delciously fudgy Cana Negra gran reserva Guatemalan rum from Marks & Spencer
It was suggested by fellow wine writer Susy Atkins of Saturday Kitchen with whom I shared a platform at the Dartmouth Food Festival this last weekend. I’ve paired cognac with chocolate but hadn’t explored rum much which, on the basis of this pairing, is a cracking match.
The extraordinary thing was that the Cana Negra, which was aged in three different types of barrel - bourbon, sherry and cognac - brought out delicious raisin flavours in the chocolate which weren’t originally there. Even though it’s strong (40%) I can imagine it being totally delicious with a dense rich chocolate tart or chocolate cake or with chocolate brownies. I suspect it would be good with Christmas cakes and other rich fruit cakes too.
At £25 it would make a super Christmas present for a spirits - or chocolate - lover.
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