Sloe Gin has been something of a tradition in our family, dating back as far as I can remember, but most of the people I have introduced it to here in London have never heard of it let alone tasted it, so I thought I'd share the recipe. Actually 'recipe' is probably a little too strong a word, it's pretty basic.
Firstly a little about sloes. If you're really interested, the wikipedia page is quite comprehensive, but suffice it to say that they're small black berries which appear in hedgerows around September or early October, usually coinciding with a late summer holiday. They're easy to spot, sitting like black pearls on a spiky bush with leaves like sage, and often have a nice blue bloom covering their surfice, like grapes.
This year we picked ours in the lanes around St. David's in Wales. After getting them home we laid them out on absorbent paper for a day or so to breathe, ripen and dry out.
When you're ready to make the Sloe Gin, you'll need kilner jars or similar. Most recipes say they need to be sterilised, but in my experience the Gin is powerful enough to kill off anything which may be lurking within. You'll also need granulated sugar and Gin. It's best not to go overboard with the Gin here, but don't scrimp either. Remember you'll be drinking it neat come Christmas so if you go for cheap gin, it'll be pretty grim. We went for good ol' fashioned Gordon's this year, middle of the road in flavour, not too much juniper, probably about right.
Then you take each sloe and prick it all over with a pin, a minimum of ten times per berry. This allows the juice out and the gin in. If you don't do this, the berries will just sit like marbles at the bottom of the jar.
Fill each jar about a third of the way up with sloes, then add the sugar. Again, some recipes will be accurate, but it's all about personal taste. In my opinion it's best to start with too little then add more when you taste it in November if necessary. For reference, we added about four tablespoons to each of this year's jars. Then pour in the gin to just over halfway up the jar. The sloes must be covered, with enough room to swill about.
Once that's done, that's it. Close up your jars and wait. For the first week, simply turn the bottles once a day to help the juices start flowing and to ensure the sugar dissolves. Do not shake them, this could break the berries and make a mulchy mess, treat them gently. After a week the liquid will turn a beautiful ruby red colour like this:
Around mid November, it's tasting time. It'll be a little tart, but should already be tasting deliciously fruity. If it's too much for you, add a little more sugar, but remember that it's hard to go backwards. If you do accidentally go too sweet then add more gin, but remember this will take the mixture closer to the stiff Gin taste and away from that delicious blackcurrant taste that you're going for.
Come Christmas it should be ready. Filter the mixture through muslin or kitchen towel into bottles and enjoy short and neat. We've tried it with tonic and over ice, but in my opinion it's best treated like port, late in the evening with a good movie in front of the fire. Delicious.
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