The Old Keg of Rum … Balls

My name is old Jack Palmer,
I’m a man of olden days,
And so I wish to sing a song
To you of olden praise.
To tell of merry friends of old
When we were gay and young;
How we sat and sang together
Round the Old Keg of Rum.

Chorus

Oh! the Old Keg of Rum! the Old Keg of Rum!
How we sat and sang together
Round the Old Keg of Rum.

–excerpt from “The Old Keg of Rum”, in The Old Bush Songs (1906) a collection of old Australian ballads, edited by poet and balladeer himself, Banjo Paterson. Book in the Public Domain

Apparently rum balls are a European or Nordic invention, meant to use up leftover cake and biscuits by repurposing them as alcohol-soaked morsels, with a binding agent, added cocoa or nuts, or other tasties.

I MUCH prefer to think of them as leaping from the imagination of old Jack Palmer, the plough-boy, the fiddler, and their other Australian bush chums, as they sat and sang around that old keg of rum 125 years ago. “Hey, chaps, here’s an idea! Let’s dip our PUDDING in the rum!”

The good thing is that an old keg of rum balls can satisfy plenty, because they’re easy and quick to make.

And they have that Christmasy feel about them, much like this stanza 😉 👇

Its jovially together, boys—
We’d laugh, we’d chat, we’d sing;
Sometimes we’d have a little row
Some argument would bring.

And oftimes in a scrimmage, boys,
I’ve corked it with my thumb,
To keep the life from leaking
From the Old Keg of Rum.

-Ibid.

For more sweet treats that would also go down well with a crowd at Christmas🎄, here’s a honeycomb ice cream cake, a chocolate cake, and, for something a little lighter, but which also contains a little liquor, a strawberry yoghurt trifle. Enjoy!