Kitchen Garden Forum

Please does anybody have one? Thanks in anticipation.

Firstly it is too early to be picking sloes yet, traditionaly they are picked after the first frost.

Second, the recipe is from memory and my father always used a glass bulmers cider bottle from the days when they had a screw-in lid as opposed to screw-on.

Fill the bottle with sloes, pricking them with a sharp fork just before putting them in is optional.
Pour in gin using a funnel leaving it an inch or so shy of the top.
Put the stopper in and shake vigerously, the sloes should settle a bit, add a small dessertspoon of crystal sugar and top up the gin to just cover the sugar.
After firmly stoppering the bottle put it in a adark cupboard and leave it for as long as you can.
Agitating the bottle from time to time is fine. Sediment will be generated over time.
When you think it is ready, decant into a clean bottle and allow to settle for a week and then decant into another clean bottle.
On tasting add more sugar to adjust to your preference.

Oh and the sloes can be stoned and used in alcofrolic jelly. Hic!

Given the size of sloes this year you may want to find a wide necked glassbottle and matching cork.

peter wrote:Firstly it is too early to be picking sloes yet, traditionaly they are picked after the first frost.

Quick question on this - isn't the Autumn harvest a little earlier this year (going by all the blackberries & Elderberries around)?

I too have been tempted by all the sloes, but find that if I leave them till the first frosts, other drinkers have nicked the easy-to-reach ones!

Assuming they're actually ripe, an alternative can be to pick & freeze them, before bottling. This gives you the effect that Peter suggests, with less of the wait.


Colin

ps. As well as alcoholic jelly, you can add the fruit residue left over when you bottle the final results to home made fudge. The "dryness" of the sloes offsets the sweetness quite nicely

Hi Colin,
The best Sloes grow at the top of the tree!!
Just to confound you I have an oddity at present an elderberry in the hedge in flower!! Sods law if nothing else!
I should leave the Sloes until a lot later before picking them. I picked one just before Christmas one year and ate it and it actually was quite sweet.
Normally two seconds after trying to eat you swear blind that you have instantly contracted Mumps!
JB.

A tip for pricking the sloes, which is an arduous job normally.

Cut a cork in two and push some sewing pins through it. Fill a tray with sloes so that they each other and use the sloe pricker going from left to right in rows.

You might want to have a look at this website www.sloe.motion.uk I think that is the right web address, if not you should be able to google it. A handy tip to avoid all that mind numbing pricking with a pin is to put the sloes in the freezer overnight. This pops the skins, its always worked for me although the purists hate the idea! Best to let them defrost before adding the gin. If anybody would like my cherry brandy recipe using Lidl morrello cherries please ask.

If anybody would like my cherry brandy recipe using Lidl morrello cherries please ask.

I'm asking please . I just happen to have a large jar in my store cupboard that needs to be used up.

Yes please.