Red Rum: Homemade Jello Shots

It's a bit hard to miss that nostalgia is at least part of (if not all) the rage lately. Superhero movies target thirty-somethings (and older). Cocktail bars are recreating prohibition-era drinks with homemade bitters and the like. And restaurants/cookbooks are playing on childhood flavors and memories as, for example, with the "cereal milk" at Momofuku Milk Bar or Joanne Chang's recipes for homemade Oreos and Pop Tarts in her oft-lauded-on-Pearwise Flour cookbook.

What's fun about the food-related nostalgia is that the re-creations are often much, much better than the childhood memories they're trying to evoke. Have you tried a Pop Tart lately? If not, trust me. This is what excited me about the idea of doing some homemade, very high quality Jello shots. Jello shots are a classic sugar-laden and potent undergrad-era (and, ok, a bit after that for some) party accessory. The idea of making them with fresh fruit juices and infused liquors was -- at least to me -- quite appealing.

Not surprisingly, I'm certainly not the first to have this idea. There is, in fact, a whole blog (the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen) dedicated to the topic, and the author's creations are actually pretty incredible. As you can see, the site has spawned a book and generated quite a bit of media attention. My goals are not nearly so lofty, but I did want to play with the concept.

Infusing rum with berries.

I started with some rum that I had infused with fresh New York strawberries. I sliced up a quart of strawberries (removing the tops) and left them in a sealed jar with enough rum to just cover the berries for a month or so. After straining out the berries, you can see in the photo that the rum turned a delightful shade of bright red (which actually surprised me).

Red rum!!

Using a recipe for an Elderflower Mojito jelly shot as a model, I first made a simple syrup of sugar and water and dissolved 4 packets of plain gelatin in this syrup. I then added an equal (to the amount of syrup) amount of freshly squeezed lime juice, followed by a cup of the strawberry rum. After stirring it all together, I separated it into tiny paper cups and let them set in the fridge overnight.

Dissolving gelatin

The result was very stiff, so I probably could've used less gelatin if I wanted. They were tasty, tasting clearly of strawberry with a hint of rum flavor. The lime and syrup really provided accent; you couldn't taste them. And to taste much of anything, you had to eat it slowly...which sort of defeats the purpose of a shot.

Shots about to gel.

Still, they were fun. And brought back memories of shots made with actual Jello; without having to eat actual Jello. That was the goal, so I declare mission accomplished.