Rum

St. John Frizell of Fort Defiance in Red Hook, Brooklyn, created this recipe for a Fourth of July drinks feature—this is the white option in a special red, white, and blue Sangria series. For this Caribbean-inspired pitcher drink, Frizell recommends using good white rum or, even better, a mix of white rum and aged rum. "A funky aged Jamaican rum, like Smith & Cross, will add a profound depth of flavor to the mix," he notes. For the wine, Frizell says to use a young unoaked white, such as a Sauvignon Blanc or a dry Riesling.

Portland-based Salt & Straw adds a drop of vinegar and a hint of pepper to balance the sweetness in this strawberry shake, plus a splash of rum to make it deliciously complex in flavor. If you're making this for non-drinkers, just omit the booze.

The King's Cake (galette des rois), in whatever form it took, with a "bean" baked into it, has been the king of desserts on Twelfth Night, also known as the Feast of Kings or Epiphany in France, since the Middle Ages. In those days, the French King's Cake took different forms depending on the region. It was a brioche topped with candied fruits in Provence, a flat galette with cream in the North, a dry cake in Lorraine, a puff pastry round with an almond flavored filling in Lyon. À Paris, it was a gorenflot, a sort of enriched bread raised with baker's yeast, something like a Polish brioche. The ritual of this shared cake is symbolic of the day of the Epiphany, commemorating the presentation of Jesus to the Magi on the sixth of January, but it is also redolent of other pagan traditions linked to the cult of fertility that was so popular with the Romans. The "bean" hidden inside the cake was originally an actual lima bean, a symbol of renewal and fecundity, before it was replaced by a tiny porcelain figure representing the Christ child, then by a host of trinkets. Today, the marzipan-filled, puff pastry round has gained supremacy almost everywhere. And for good reason—few pastries can give such extended pleasure. How delicious when, under its fine butter coating, the many-layered pastry (milles-feuilles), still warm, encounters the silky, fondant marzipan on the palate—a perfect combination of the puff pastry and grainy, ground almonds. No one knows exactly when this so-called "Parisian" cake was born. The invention of marzipan dates from the sixteenth century. The history should be treated with caution, but it is sufficiently delicious to have been inscribed indelibly in the memory of gourmets. In 1588, an Italian marquis named Murio Frangipani marketed gloves perfumed with almonds. There is nothing surprising about this because perfumers were originally glove makers. The essence of Italian frangipani, about which Catherine de' Medici was passionate, inspired the pastry cooks of the French court to create frangipane cream, an equal mixture of pastry cream and almond cream. King's Cake, whether flavored with fruits or almond cream, is a dessert with a history. Certain Epiphanies have been retained in the annals. For instance, on January 6, 1650, at the Louvre Palace, Anne of Austria and her son Louis XIV indulged in the cake, leaving on the table, as was the custom, a share for the poor, in this case the very part that contained the bean. The next morning, there was "no other king than that of the bean," the king having fled Paris to escape the uprising known as the Fronde. Is it because of this unpleasant memory that the tradition of naming the person who finds the bean as "king" for the day was outlawed during Louis XIV's reign, the custom being officially judged to be too pagan? In 1770, Diderot recounted this anecdote in his Encyclopédie, summarizing it with this amusing aphorism: "Signe Denis, sans terre ni château. Roi par the grâce du gâteau." (The sign of Denis [patron saint of Paris] without land or château, King by the grace of a gâteau.) The joy of eating the crown is all part of the pleasure of enjoying King's Cake once a year, and more....

Martin Cate, owner of the rum-centric Smuggler's Cove bar in San Francisco, shares his spiced rum recipe below. The secret: Start with good rum, and don't overinfuse the mixture.

To make perfect rings of fresh pineapple slice in 1/2"-thick circles, then round off the edges and punch out the core with 3 3/4"- and 1 1/4"-diameter cookie cutters, respectively.

Sure, you can mix it with cola, but we prefer our spiced rum in a proper cocktail like the Kona Swizzle, a floral riff on the classic Queen's Park Swizzle, Created by New York city bartender Brian Miller.

Think of this dessert as sweet, crunchy rice pudding–filled ravioli. It is composed of many elements, none of which are difficult to make and all of which, apart from the frying, can be prepared in advance. But you need to plan ahead and make the various elements in stages. To make the sauce, look for quality, plump raisins, such as flame raisins, a moist and flavorful variety that we find at our local farmers’ markets. We use cannoli dough in this recipe, which gets really crisp and blistered after it’s fried. We run the dough through a pasta sheeter, but if you don’t have one, you can roll the dough thin using a rolling pin on a lightly dusted surface. You will need a 3-inch square cookie cutter (preferably fluted) to make these.

This cocktail is named after the brand of amaro, or bitters, that we use to make it. You could use another bitters if you can’t find Meletti.

I don’t rent out my house in Italy but I do let friends stay there. The “rent” that I charge is always the same: one book and one DVD. Our collection of both is pretty random, but thankfully someone at some time thought to bring the movie Il Postino, one of my all-time favorites.

The flavors of milk chocolate, rum, and coconut in these truffles complement each other perfectly.

Lime zest, cream of coconut, and white chocolate are blended together to create a scrumptious flavor in these truffles. Cream of coconut is sold in cans, and is available in the baking or specialty foods section of most supermarkets, or in large liquor stores. Be sure to stir the cream of coconut thoroughly before using.

Cachaça is a potent sugarcane liquor. If you can’t find it, use light rum instead.

We love our sweet twist on a daiquiri: mango mixed with dark rum, sugar syrup, and lemon juice (in place of the traditional lime).

Pineapple and coconut rum give this drink the taste of the tropics.

This classic tart, essentially a frangipane filling enclosed between two layers of puff pastry, is named for the French town in which it was created. We recommend using an insulated baking sheet instead of a regular baking sheet to prevent the bottom of the pastry from getting too browned during baking.

Allowing the bread to soak in the custard batter for a full hour is the secret to a good bread-and-butter pudding.

For perfectly smooth slices, cut the layered cake with a hot serrated knife. The cake can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to 3 weeks.