CrackerFestive Drinks T
his is the time of year to collect sloe berries to make sloe gin. Although they fruited early this year, there are still some to be found. Called heg pegs in Shropshire and hedge picks in
Gloucestershire sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn, and are common in most hedgerows in England. They are a small dark purple fruit, exceptionally bitter to taste, but when mixed with sugar and gin, make a wonderfully smooth bitter sweet, scented liqueur. Most recipes say that the sloes should be pricked before bottling, but picking the sloes after there has been a frost does the same job, making the skins soft and permeable so that
of gin.
Then you put the pricked/defrosted sloes into a sterilised jar, mix the gin and sugar and pour in. Store somewhere cool and dark and shake the bottle well, once a week or so, for at least two months.
Strain the sloe gin through muslin into a sterilised bottle, it can be used straight away or kept for a year or more. The sloes can also be eaten afterwards as they lose their bitter taste and take on the sweeter gin flavour. Obviously it is getting too late to make sloe gin for this year, but if you are keen to try it there are a number of commercial varieties you can buy. Sloe gin is great on its own as a liqueur but also makes great Christmassy cocktails. For example you can use it to make a sloe and tonic or mix it with a teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of lemon juice and soda water to make a sloe gin fizz or mix it with champagne for a really different champagne cocktail.
the gin and sloe juice mingle easily. This isn’t always possible when frosts are late, but many an enterprising sloe gin maker has picked the sloes and put them in their home freezer for a day or two. To make sloe gin you will need 450g sloes, 225g sugar and 1 litre
The Ross Gazette 15
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