Rumtopf – hertha

Prepare fruit as outlined below
Gently mix 500g (1 pound) of fresh fruit with 250ml (1 cup) sugar.
Let stand 1 hour before placing into crock
Add enough rum to completely cover the fruit by 1/2″. Keep the fruit submerged by inverting a small plate over the fruit and weight it down.
Cover the crock with plastic wrap, and then put the lid on the crock.
Allow the mixture to stand at room temperature
Add more fruit as they come into season (prefer the first batch of fruits as they have the best taste) following the steps above.
After the addition of each fruit it takes about 2 weeks before fermentation is well under way again. The mixture will take at least two to three months to mature after you have added the last fruit. That is why the Rumtopf is traditionally begun in May or June, finished in late September / early October and eaten during the Christmas season. Gently stir before using.

Fruits

A selection of any or all of the following:

Apricots: wash, pitted, unpeeled, halved
Cherries (sour and/or bing): wash, pitted, remove stem, whole
Grapes: wash, remove stem, whole
Melons: peel, remove seeds, cut into cubes
Peaches / Nectarines: wash, pitted, peeled and quartered
Pears: peeled and quartered
Plums: wash, remove stem, halved, with/without skin
Raspberries/Blackberries: do not wash, sort carefully, whole
Red Currents: wash, remove stem
Strawberries: wash, remove stems, whole or halve large fruits
Some say blueberries and apples do not do well in Rumtopf (blueberries can become fibrous)

Notes:

As we have a global supply chain, many of the fruits are available year round. This means you can purchase all the fruits at once and then make the Rumtopf in one shot. For my crock, 2.5 to 3 kg (5-6 pounds) of fruit will fill it, and this produces about 4 litres of the “compote”, which I preserve in about eight 500ml jars. Any extra is consumed at the end of the jarring process.