rum suggestions for baking?

[jubilant cerise]

I mostly use it for plumping up raisins/currants for banana bread, though more recently for caneles (which calls for a dark rum) and the occasional rum & coke. I usually buy Appleton rum but making caneles have me thinking differently now. Anyone tried Kraken? It has a beautiful label but of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[JoanN]

I always use Myer's Dark Rum for baking and cooking because it seems especially flavorful to me. It's not the cheapest, but it's not the most expensive, either. And I've always been pleased with the end product.

[jubilant cerise]

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep an eye out for it!

The Appleton rum I've used in the past wasn't the smallest bottle but the next size up which is usually around $15 CDN. The Kraken, as far as I could see, came is quite a larger bottle (wine bottle size) for about $40 CDN - it looked like a lot of money to me at first but in comparison to the Appleton it's not a bad price at all and will probably last a while since I'm not a big drinker.

[JoanN]

Myers comes in 375ML bottles which is good if you're going to keep it around for baking and not really use it much for drinking. Here in the States that half bottle can run from $12 to $17.

[blue room]

I had to take a look at the Kraken label since you called it beautiful..
is that a squid or an octopus? And do those creatures have any connection to rum? Just curious.

[jubilant cerise]

The Kraken is a giagantic mythical octopus from nordic myths. According to their website, the Kraken was credited with sinking a large shipment of rum as dark as the ink of the beast. Fun marketing story, eh? :)

[blue room]

Yes, good story! Thanks, jubilant cerise.

[todao]

When selecting any alcoholic beverage as a cooking ingredient, the rule of thumb should be (IMO) don't use anything you wouldn't drink. I don't know what issues you've had with Appleton rum, except that its a dark rum, but I often use Bacari rum in my baking recipes.

[jubilant cerise]

Haven't had any issues with Appleton but noticed it's a gold rum, not dark. It's been fine for the caneles but figure I should try to make them sometime with the rum called for in the recipe. Also I'm out of rum, so it's shopping time!

[todao]

You're correct, of course. Appleton is a "gold" rum. I tend to figure that any rum darker than crystal clear is dark .... gotta get over that. I tend to say away from rum that isn't clear because if I stay away from anything darker I don't have to do the research to see what they used (added molasses, other additives) to darken it.