The commercial sloe gin is awful, I've never tasted any so bad apart from a certain arsser who thought sugar was a bad idea!

Try Sloe Vodka, exactly the same just replace g with v.

Very very good.

All very well respected gins, those

My bold and wah deflectors on, but aren't they all brands of Vodka?

Not the cheapest maybe but a mellow gin, such as Plymouth Gin might work well? Thoughts from the pros before I make my first attempt this year?

You're quite right and are the winner in this weeks Deliberate Error Competition, £10 is on it's way to you as soon as I can be arrsed.

I blame it on the fact that I was testing the merchandise at the time!

I've just come home with a huge bag of sloes, already ripe! Any ideas for using them other than gin,brandy,port etc??






Before you kick off, have already done the requisite 3 litres of sloe gin, so not wasting them! Bumper crop here too!!

This is a Danish recipe and it's stonkin' good stuff.

Sloe Schnapps
Sloe schnapps - based on fresh and fully ripe sloes from the blackthorn plant - has a beautiful deep red colour.

It's a very rich schnapps - fruity and sweet with taste of cherry, vanilla and almond.

It's an excellent after-dinner drink, and goes very well with all types of cheese and cheese cakes.

Recipe

Use fresh and fully ripe sloes.

It's very important that they are fully ripe, because even one or two unripe sloes will ruin the taste.

Pick them right after the first frost. But before the birds eat them. Put them in the freezer for a couple of days.

Or do as I do - pick them when they are fully ripe but BEFORE the frost and freeze them for a week or more.

Frost makes sloes sweeter and milder.

Direction:


•Rinse the sloes carefully and remove all stems.


•Leave them to dry in the shadow - on paper towel.


•Freeze them for a week or more.


•Use a clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid.


•Fill the jar with frozen sloes.


•Fill up with clear, unflavoured vodka - 40% (80 proof).


•Steep for 3-8 weeks in a dark place at room temperature,
18-20°C (64-68°F).


•Shake lightly and taste it from time to time.


•Strain and filter your infusion into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid.


•Store (age) for 2 -3 weeks in a dark place at room temperature before serving.


•You may need to filter once more.


Serve your sloe schnapps at room temperature in suitable glasses. And remember to keep your schnapps bottle tightly closed and in a dark place before and between servings.

I fear you may have blown it - they really do need to have had a frost on them or at least been in the freezer for a bit - you should probably up the sugar content a wee bit to make up for them being immature.

As for other uses, unless theyve been used first for making alchohol taste even nicer, I have never managed to find another use for them.

I picked my first crop yesterday, they have been in the freezer today and will this week attempt my first batch of gin - Licks lips in anticipation

CYANIDE Did you say Cyanide?

Could you give a few more details. This stuff sounds good but would not want to poison friends (or self). Is the cyanide in the pit? Would it be better to de-pit before the soakin/aging part.

dont know about cyanide but once it is filtered it needs to mature for a year or 4

Bloody hell, guys, it's a bit early to be picking sloes! My diary says late Sep and early Oct.

Global warming or greediness?

Lits

Many fruits have cyanide in the pips / stones. There is (apparently) at least one record of a bloke snuffing it from eating apple pips (he did eat a lot), there is cyanide in peach kernels and almonds too. As for Sloes, I havent been able to check so far this year but last year there was a glut of them in Hampshire and Surrey.

Just picking the berries when they are there ;o)

Admit it you wanna pick em!!!

Started my first ever attempt at sloe gin last weekend. Three litres of it is sat in the shed as I type and should be just about ready to decant in time for the special offers on cheap port before Christmas. Having read about people struggling to find sloes I expected to have to spend some time searching but it seems that around Corsham you can't move for them.

So how do I stop myself from trying it regularly to check if it's ready?

Whatever you do agitate regulary till the sugar dissolves!

Been doing that. The sugar's already dissolved, I hope I put enough in.

I put in a pound of sugar for every pound of fruit. Not had any complaints yet!

I've started mainly because the sloes around my way have started to go a bit wrinkly - so I've made 4 litres of the stuff.

I froze the sloes first before making it and then defrosted them under cold running water. I was hoping we were going to have a bit of frost by now but obviously not.

If there isn't any with in the next week or so I'm going to make some more before it's too late and we lose the lot to old age and birds.

As for how much sugar I use I generally go for the receipe on the Sloebiz website - about 150g per 500ml of gin and 500ml of sloes.

Having lurked for a while I feel compelled to post in the interest of science. Having waited long enough for a proper frost, the dusting on saturday morn had to suffice as the crop was looking a bit withered and the wildlife more hungry. So it was that the hedgerow combine harvester of walking stick, bucket and thrashed truly was set in motion.


Having filled the usual demi as custom, I tried something that I cannot claim for my own but found in the shooting times, I thought it would be interesting for others to try in the name of science (does it really work) and philanthropy (if it does work)

Take 1lb sloes put on baking tray, cover in just under half lb castor sugar, and bake at about 180 for about 20 mins. All the juice comes out, strain through a sieve into a litre of gin.

I have got this far and it allready is starting to settle and tastes of sloe gin!!!!!!!. Mr Harriman of the shooting times suggests that I add some almond esscence and a couple of tots of polish supper strength vodka in a day or so, and that it is ready to filter, rebottle and drink in two weeks!!!

The clever bit ( im guessing cos im not clever) is that baking the sloes to mush is doing the extraction of flavour that more suger, alcohol and most importantly time (so very much time) would normaly do.

Try it with that pound left over that will not fit in the demijon, and please dont burn me as a heretic as I am still doing the traditional one as well.