Sloe Gin
You will need:-
Sloes
A way of damaging the sloe
skins (see below)
Sugar
Gin – any gin will do, I
use cheap Tesco Value stuff, 70cl
A big jar with a sealed lid
(Kilner 2 litre or Ikea 1.8 litre works for me, just depends on how much you
plan to make)
- Wash the sloes. To damage the skins either sit
for ages and use a pin to prick each sloe lots of times, all over, to
release the flavour. Alternatively
put them in a freezer for a bit to make the skins hard and brittle then
run them over that part of the cheese grater that you never use as it’s
too fiddly to clean. This damages the skins equally as well as the pricking, is
not as time consuming and your fingers don’t end up stained.
- Fill the jar about 1/3 full of the damaged
sloes.
- Add sugar for about another 1/3 of the jar.
- Top up with gin leaving a gap at the top. (Keep the gin bottle to store the
finished product later, although you will need extra storage as well.)
- Fit the lid and jiggle the jar to mix
everything.
- Label it.
- Put in a dark place to maintain the wonderful
colour, I use under the sink.
- Leave for at least 3 months. Swishing it weekly to make sure that
all the sugar is dissolved.
- After 3 months decant into clean bottles and
enjoy as a liqueur or as a long drink with lemonade.
Notes from experience
The fruit can be left for
more than 3 months if you can wait, I recently decanted some that had been
sitting in the gin for 12 months.
Some recipes use just the
gin and sloes and recommend you make a separate sugar syrup which you add at
the decanting stage so you can control the sweetness, but that’s too much like
hard work to me.
I make a variety of fruit
liqueurs; we currently have Damson Gin, Rhubarb Vodka and Blackberry Vodka on
the go and no room for the Fairy Liquid.
We need to go foraging for Sloes now, as it is the time to pick them.
 |
| Left to right. Rhubarb Vodka, Damson Gin, just made Damson Gin, Blackberry Vodka |
Big Tip. Don’t tell your visitors
what you are making, they usually then want to drink it all!
Not done this with sloes as
I don’t know how edible they are, but I have with the blackberry and damsons – Don’t
throw the fruit away, it is the most
heavenly toxic stuff. It will keep for a bit in the fridge or put it in the freezer. Use a small amount and I mean small as in teaspoon size,
with a serving of ice-cream. I have a lovely recipe for fruit muffins and it is
amazing with the ginned damsons, you just have to stone them first.
Have fun
