Sloe Gin

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Discussion

kiteless

Original Poster:

11,730 posts

205 months

Sunday 6th December 2009
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We started some off using an old 1950's recipe back in October, and having let it steep and having shaken the flagon regularly since, we sampled a soupcon of it earlier.

Jesus H fvcking christ it's good. Another 2 weeks of steeping and shaking and it will be majestic.

Having never tried sloe gin before, I can thoroughly recommend it!


Penny-lope

13,645 posts

194 months

Monday 7th December 2009
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Damson gin's nice too

Johnniem

2,675 posts

224 months

Monday 7th December 2009
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Congrats but how does that get us closer to trying your 1950's recipe? We are now intrigued!

Post recipe!

Cheers sir! thumbup

SirClarke

633 posts

177 months

Monday 7th December 2009
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Drank an entire bottle of Sloe vodka (with friends) at our first xmas dinner party of the year. It was lovely. Quite syrupy and sweet, very fruity and still with a vodka kick. Makes a nice change from Sloe Gin which doesn't always do it for me smile

kiteless

Original Poster:

11,730 posts

205 months

Monday 7th December 2009
quotequote all
Johnniem said:
Congrats but how does that get us closer to trying your 1950's recipe? We are now intrigued!

Post recipe!

Cheers sir! thumbup
Like I said, it's tasting bloody good, but it's our first try and the only thing we had was an old book of mine (where I got it from I can't remember) called "Home Made Country Wines" by Dorothy Wise (priced at 3'6!):

Put 3 pints of ripe, dry sloes in a gallon jar with 1oz of sweet almonds and 1.5lbs of loaf sugar; pour in 2 quarts of gin and cover. Shake the jar every 3 days for 3 months. Strain off the liquor, bottle, and seal with corks. The gin is ready for use or may be kept for years, improving greatly in the keeping.

The above recipe in the book was from a "Mrs Hansard, Lincoln"


fatboy b

9,501 posts

217 months

Tuesday 8th December 2009
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kiteless said:
Johnniem said:
Congrats but how does that get us closer to trying your 1950's recipe? We are now intrigued!

Post recipe!

Cheers sir! thumbup
Like I said, it's tasting bloody good, but it's our first try and the only thing we had was an old book of mine (where I got it from I can't remember) called "Home Made Country Wines" by Dorothy Wise (priced at 3'6!):

Put 3 pints of ripe, dry sloes in a gallon jar with 1oz of sweet almonds and 1.5lbs of loaf sugar; pour in 2 quarts of gin and cover. Shake the jar every 3 days for 3 months. Strain off the liquor, bottle, and seal with corks. The gin is ready for use or may be kept for years, improving greatly in the keeping.

The above recipe in the book was from a "Mrs Hansard, Lincoln"
It's worth pricking all the sloes with a pin too.

dhf

1,103 posts

195 months

Tuesday 8th December 2009
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What did you use for Loaf Sugar ?

kiteless

Original Poster:

11,730 posts

205 months

Tuesday 8th December 2009
quotequote all
We did prick the sloes (PITA, but I suspect worth it).

"Loaf sugar" in the 50's maybe meant something different from your usual Tate 'n Lyle stuff, so in complete ignorance we used boggo granulated.


Simpo Two

85,652 posts

266 months

Wednesday 9th December 2009
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I thought loaf sugar was simply granulated sugar fused into a lump, but not so it seems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf

MKnight702

3,112 posts

215 months

Wednesday 9th December 2009
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kiteless said:
We did prick the sloes (PITA, but I suspect worth it).

"Loaf sugar" in the 50's maybe meant something different from your usual Tate 'n Lyle stuff, so in complete ignorance we used boggo granulated.
I didn't bother to prick mine, I just put them in the freezer. Once they freeze the skin splits.

kiteless

Original Poster:

11,730 posts

205 months

Wednesday 9th December 2009
quotequote all
MKnight702 said:
kiteless said:
We did prick the sloes (PITA, but I suspect worth it).

"Loaf sugar" in the 50's maybe meant something different from your usual Tate 'n Lyle stuff, so in complete ignorance we used boggo granulated.
I didn't bother to prick mine, I just put them in the freezer. Once they freeze the skin splits.
Funny you say that.

The home-made wine book says to pick rosehips after the first frost. We wondered why. Last weekend, having had a good frost here in Salop, we had a look and feel of the rosehips. Soft, they were!

So.

After elderflower, wild cherry, elderberry, blackberry, cloverflower, wild damson, and wild plum it seems that the last hedgerow wine of the year will be rosehip.


majordad

3,603 posts

198 months

Thursday 10th December 2009
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What can you make with Rose Hips

louiebaby

10,651 posts

192 months

Thursday 10th December 2009
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majordad said:
What can you make with Rose Hips
Ummm...

kiteless said:
The home-made wine book says to pick rosehips after the first frost.
We made our sloe gin with a dash of almond essence, however I bow to the superior teachings of this thread, and shall be back next year!

CBGB

197 posts

205 months

Thursday 10th December 2009
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last year, I tried this recipe with my left over sloes - very nice;

http://www.sloe.biz/pip/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1...

Emsman

6,923 posts

191 months

Thursday 10th December 2009
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Mine is ready right now. This very instant


And due to burning off my tastebuds, i shant be able to taste a thing.


Bugger

MKnight702

3,112 posts

215 months

Thursday 10th December 2009
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[quote=kiteless
Funny you say that.

The home-made wine book says to pick rosehips after the first frost. We wondered why. Last weekend, having had a good frost here in Salop, we had a look and feel of the rosehips. Soft, they were!


[/quote]

I believe that the old saying pick after the first frost is related to delaying the picking until after the fruit has had time to ripen fully (hence the softness of the rosehips) rather than allowing the frost to split the skins for you. It would need to be a very sharp frost indeed to freeze the sloe/rosehip solid causing expansion splitting of the skin.