Is this real?

[Ed Hamilton]

Every once in a while I run across a drink recipe and wonder, is this for real, or is this something that a lazy spirits writer dreamed up between trips to the sanctioned smoking space outside the front door of the office?

What do you think about this concoction called

RUM FUSTIAN ?

6 egg yolks

1 quart beer or ale

1 pint gin

1 pint medium dry sherry

1 stick cinnamon

Dash nutmeg

Twist lemon peel

Beat the egg yolks until lemony and frothy. Beat in the beer; beat in the gin. Put the sherry in a saucepan with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon peel and heat just to the boiling point. Remove the cinnamon. Beat the hot wine into the egg mixture, and serve at once, while it is still warm, in heated 8-ounce mugs.

Makes about 8 drinks. If there is a problem with eggs in your region, do not prepare this recipe.

House & Garden

be the first to rate this recipe , my second clue that this might be made up, was that no one had rated this collection of ingredients.

And just in case you're thinking I made this up. .

Rum Fustian?

[iamthestretch]

I think the third clue may be that it's called a Rum Fustian and yet they left out the main frigging ingredient? Apparently it's historical in some extremely local sense, but not without the bloody rum.

[2roost]

I think it probably a screwed up version of the "historical" punch recipe mentioned in stretch's reply.

Many of the 18th and 19th century punchs sound incredibly strange in today's context, and no I am not going to be the first, or last, to "rate it".

[Ed Hamilton]

Thanks for casting a little historical credibility to this drink.

If you can't find some credibility in the egullet forums, well, there probably isn't any.

[slkinsey]

With the inclusion of copious amounts of dark rum, it sounds not all that different from egg nog. Back in the old days, it was relatively common to make alcoholic libations that included eggs. After being mixed, the drinks would then be warmed/thickened via the insersion of a hot loggerhead (an iron tool consisting of a long handle terminating in a ball or bulb that is heated and used to melt tar or to heat liquids).

[Ed Hamilton]

OK, I'll accept that the author forgot the dark rum, but a quart beer or ale,

a pint gin and a pint of medium dry spiced sherry sounds just a little too alcoholic even for me, not to mention being a waste of beer, and gin.

[fatdeko]

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

The Rumfustian (one word) is definitely historical and f'real.

How for real? Jerry Thomas lists it in his '62 edition thusly:

This is the singular name bestowed upon a drink very much in vogue with English sportsmen, after their return from a day's shooting, and is concocted thus:

The yolks of a dozen eggs are well whisked up, and put into a quart of strong beer; to this is added a pint of gin; a bottle of sherry is put into a saucepan, with a stick of cinnamon, a nutmeg grated, a dozen large lumps of sugar, and the rind of a lemon peeled very thin; when the wine boils, it is pouredd upon the gin and beer, and the whole drunk hot.

Yep, No Rum.

How come is that, you ask?

The etymology of the word "rum" is confused, as are most things in the booze realm. Some adhere to the ancient "saccharum"--connoting rum's sugary ancestory--as the word's parentage, while others (myself included) look to mayhem as the inspiration.

Rum = RUMpus.

A "RUMbustion" was a rip-roaring, hide-tearing, chair-breakin' event, usually fueled by some sort of strong drink. In the Americas, it was regularly a sugar/molasses based spirit --then un-named--rather than whisk(e)y or gin. The words conflated, hence, our referent: rum.

Methinks the name Rumfustian is simply a play on the word Rumbustion.

It's a strange drink, to be sure, but I'd be hard put to hang it in the Nog department. There's no cow juice, whether skim, cream, 1/2 n 1/2, Vitamin D.

Initially I thought of this as an elaborate Tom and Jerry until I actually thought about it. I've got no idea how to classify him.

It's Gin.

It's Beer.

It's a mulled fortified wine.

It gots eggs.

Simply.... Rumfustian

Myers

[slkinsey]

Very interesting, Myers. And it makes a lot more sense when you see it as "rumfustian" rather than "rum fustian."

Some interesting information here, including the following:

. . . the word rum in this word and in rumbooze and in rumfustian did not mean rum; it meant the gypsy adjective powerful. Rumbooze or rambooze, distinctly a gypsy word, and an English university drink also, is made of eggs, ale, wine, and sugar. Rumfustian was made of a quart of strong beer, a bottle of white wine or sherry, half a pint of gin, the yolks of twelve eggs, orange peel, nutmeg, spices, and sugar. Rum-barge is another mixed drink of gypsy name. It will be noted that none of these contains any rum.

[Ed Hamilton]

The use of the word rum to denote other alcohols is probably best illustrated by the term 'rum runner.' Rum runners between Canada and Detroit smuggled Canadian whiskey, vodka and gin. Rum runners on the east coast brought rum from the Caribbean north to the thirsty Americans. So it is quite possible that the author of rumfustian didn't actually forget the rum.