P
American
Bananas Foster
Bananas sautéed in butter and brown sugar until caramelised, flambéed with dark rum and banana liqueur, and served immediately over vanilla ice cream. The entire preparation takes under 3 minutes tableside. The sauce should be dark amber, thick, and toffee-like. The bananas should be soft but not mushy — caramelised on the outside, barely warm through. The rum flame should burn blue and die naturally, having burned off the alcohol and left the rum's molasses depth in the sauce.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
115 g
unsalted butter
Your own market
200 g
dark brown sugar
Your own market
4
bananas
ripe but firm — yellow with no brown spots; halved lengthwise, then crosswise to yield four pieces each
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
240 ml
dark rum
Myers's or Gosling's; 60 ml per portion
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
60 ml
crème de banane (banana liqueur)
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
4 scoops
vanilla ice cream
to serve
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Set a heavy copper or stainless sauté pan over a high direct flame. Add the butter and dark brown sugar together. Stir continuously until the butter is fully melted and the sugar has dissolved into it, and the mixture is bubbling actively across the entire surface — the base must reach 115–120 °C and darken slightly beyond its starting colour before the bananas are introduced.
2
Lay the banana pieces cut-side down in the hot caramel. Cook for 30–60 seconds per side only. The bananas are ready to turn when the cut face is golden and lightly coloured at the edges; they are done when the second side matches. They must be soft but not mushy — caramelised on the exterior, barely warm through. Remove from the pan if necessary to avoid overcooking while the flambé is prepared.
3
This is where the dish lives or dies. With the pan still over the flame and the sauce visibly hot, add the dark rum and the crème de banane together. Allow the pan to heat for a moment so the rum reaches its flash point. Tilt the pan deliberately toward the flame — or use a long lighter — to ignite. Never lean over the pan; the flame column can reach 60 cm. The flame must burn blue and die naturally: a flame that is extinguished too early leaves a boozy sauce; a flame allowed to burn too long strips the rum of its molasses and oak depth. The flambé is complete when the blue flame falls and extinguishes of its own accord, having burned off the harsh alcohol and concentrated the rum's character into the sauce.
4
Immediately spoon the bananas and sauce over scoops of vanilla ice cream in individual serving bowls. The sauce should be dark amber, thick, and toffee-like. Serve at once — the dish cannot be held, reheated, or batched.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Dark rum of clear provenance — aged pot-still Jamaican or Bermudian (Myers's or Gosling's as named by the source); bananas sourced directly from a Central American import shipment at peak ripeness; butter of 84% fat or above.
02
Estate — A reliable aged dark rum with demonstrable molasses character; bananas selected by hand at the market for firmness and colour; cultured unsalted butter.
03
Market — Any dark rum labelled as such; supermarket bananas chosen carefully — yellow, spotless, firm to the press; standard unsalted butter.
04
House — The dish cannot be made with light rum without fundamental loss of character. Beyond that single constraint, standard dark rum and sound supermarket bananas will produce a serviceable result if technique is correct.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The butter-sugar base is ready when it bubbles actively across the whole surface and has darkened slightly beyond its original colour.
◇Touch. A banana piece pressed lightly at its thickest point yields with gentle resistance — soft but not collapsing.
◇Sight. The flambé is complete when the blue flame falls and extinguishes naturally without intervention.
◇Sight. The finished sauce coats the back of a spoon in a dark amber, toffee-like layer with no watery separation.
◇Where it lives or dies. The flambé must ignite from a genuinely hot pan and burn to a natural finish: an early extinction leaves raw alcohol in the sauce; a prolonged burn strips the rum of everything worth keeping.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Buffalo Trace Distillery · Kentucky Bourbon Country
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Whisky
From British Columbia
Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.
Without alcohol
No pour without alcohol holds against this yet.
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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