Thursday, October 08, 2009

Not Slough Gin

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get pick sloes from along the Slough Arm. Then we could make Slough gin. Sadly, although there are a few, we haven't been able to find enough, so this year we resorted to picking a load of sloes near Rick and Marilyn's house last weekend. They have an abundance of them, but although the bushes were only a mile or so from the canal they weren't near enough for us to call it Grand Union gin either.

Anyway, after only a couple of days in the jar, the gin is already taking on its glorious colour as you can see here.


You can see the sugar hasn't dissolved yet, it generally takes a few weeks to dissappear entirely.

We've also made a jar of Sloe rum, which to my mind is even more delicious. One year we even blended some old sloe gin and sloe rum together and it was gorgeous - we called it Sloe Gum

Our recipe is

One bottle of gin or rum
One pint of sloes (put in the freezer overnight, then thaw and prick with a cocktail stick)
10 or 12 ounces of sugar depending how sweet you like it

put in a large jar somehwere handy and give it a kick or a shake now and again.

By Christmas it'll be ready to filter, bottle, and drink. We generally add a few drops of almond essence in each bottle. Take no notice of people who tell you it takes years to mature. Just like whisky in the bottle, it doesn't. Once the sloes have given up their juice and colour, that's it.

2 comments:

Vallypee said...

Yummie! Sounds great, and how special to have something you've made and nurtured yourself to drink over Christmas.

Unknown said...

I am sat with my laptop and a glass of last year's damson gin at the moment. We had a glut of damsons as a friend has several trees which fruit prolifically, and I didn't find many sloes at the right time to make the gin.
I tend to use brown sugar (but not too much) as it makes it very rich in flavour! Delicious!!!
still enjoy the blog
still envy the cruising life!!!

Ann