What are the best fruits for a rumpot?

[Mrs V]

Last year I followed the recipe for my rumpot from CJ Berry's First steps in winemaking but things didn't go to well as the strawberries turned to mush and I put peaches in that also did the same. (The rum tastes nice! but I'm not sure about the fruit)
I'm hoping to do another one this year (as the ripening season is a little later this year) but don't want another mushy mess . Any suggestions what fruits are the best?

 

[31bb3]

sorry cant help Moley is the wine guru im sure he will be around soon

 

[Mark1964]

strawberries, peaches , rasberries, cherries, plums, apricots loganberries, and redcurrants are best i think.
Its best not to used damaged fruit or over or under ripe. Also when building up the layers of fruit its important not to stir.

Hope that helps

 

[theboytony]

Dried apricots are good

 

[screamlead]

Dont worry about the mush -- just strain it nearer xmas and bottle it. You can bung any fruit in really and use any spirits too just make sure each layer of fruit is covered by the liquid.

 

[wasp]

I like traditional multi-fruit, layered rumtopf recipes, but my favourite recipe is 100% cherries in Gosling's Black Seal Bermuda Black Rum (75.5%ABV / 151Proof). Plums are also good - both are cheap and in-season here now. BTW, brandy is an excellent alternative to rum.

High proof is better for eliminating the risk of spoilage. (How do I know? )

 

[Mrs V]

Thanks everyone.. it's given me my confidence back that its OK to have mush :lol: (It just doesn't look that nice!). Got to admit I hadn't really thought about using dried fruit.
Wasp - I like the idea of cherries and rum, sound lovely ... but as they're my favourite fruit I'm not sure they'd make it that far :lol: :lol:
Guess I'd better get start packing fruit then

 

[radioactive]

I am very late indeed starting off our Rumtopf this year in fact I quickly sourced lots of fruits from our local Market I got Strawberries Raspberries, Cherries. Peaches, Apricots, put all over them in and in more or less that order I covered each layer of fruit with some granulated sugar its filled the rumtopf up to about 3/4 level maybe a tiny bit more anyway In left it to settle for a couple of hours with it covered with cling-film I then added all the rum I had at the time . It is a nice Ruby Rum at 40 per cent proof it only just about covered the top of the fruits so I got another bottle of 40 percent rum today the Cuban Havanna Club Special stuff looks very nice I will finish the pot off in the Morning by adding Plumbs I got late afternoon I think by Christmas it will be Wonderful :thumb:

 

[BIGJIM72]

summer berries work well with gin,strawberries/raspberries with whisky or southern comfort,plums with brandy

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Using the right rum is quite important too. Most commercial rums aren't strong enough for rumtopf, as you ideally need around 55-60% ABV (~100% proof, +/-5%). I use a mixture of 2 parts Wray & Nephew white overproof (63%) to 1 part dark rum (40%) which gives 55.33% ABV for the rum alone. I use 105cl of rum for a 3.2L jar, so the rum is slightly less than a third of the rumtopf. When you include the fruit and sugar it'll be a shade over 18% ABV. A 40% rum would give about 13% ABV.

This year's rumtopf is very different from yours. I've already got dried apricots, dried cranberries and mango in there, and I'm going to add pineapple and whatever other suitable (mostly tropical) fruits I pick up between now and October. I have a packet of sweetened coconut which I'll add in a bag to macerate for a few months for flavour, and I will probably add about 100g of deseeded rosehips as soon as the first ones are ripe enough to pick.

There are some fruits you should never use, of course. Bananas and citrus fruits are the main ones, although you can use citrus peel.

You can also use brandy, or a combination of overproof brandy or rum with some kind of schnapps, fruit brandy or other fruit spirit such as kirsch, himbeergeist, calvados or rakia.