View Full Version : Alternative uses for sloes?
Mesquite
31-08-2009, 11:47
I know folks go on about making sloe gin but unfortunately neither my wife nor I are a lover of it.
There's a whole load out in the hedges round me and it seems a shame to waste this harvest so what things can be done with sloes besides pickling them in alcohol?
slowworm
31-08-2009, 13:24
Wine? I'm also not that keen on sloe gin (home-made rhubarb schnapps on the other hand :naughty: ) and I was a bit sceptical sloe about wine but I tried a bottle from someone I know who makes wine commercially and it was rather good. I've made my own and it's more than drinkable. It's similar to damson wine but a little bit thinner and more refined and not like sloe gin at all.
Would it be worth trying to make a sloe jelly for meat? Just done a batch of damson jelly which is fab. Boil 2kg of fruit for 40 minutes or so with 300ml of water and the juice of a couple of lemons. Strain through a muslin cloth or similar. Add 500g of sugar for each 500ml of fluid recovered. Boil until it it's ready to set (you can drip some on a chilled saucer to see if it will). Jar it up.
No idea if that will work, but might be worth a punt. Btw, tip from my experience yesterday: don't let it boil over. Twice. It'll take you for ever to clean the stove :)
You could make a jelly or jam out of it.
To keep with the booze theme you could make sloe vodka instead of sloe gin (assuming you like vodka, that is). I dare say you could even have a go at sloe brandy as well. Or maybe sloe rum?
Don't have to be Gin Mesquite, Vodka, Brandy and Rum is also fine I'm told.
Mesquite
31-08-2009, 15:17
Don't have to be Gin Mesquite, Vodka, Brandy and Rum is also fine I'm told.
I like all of those, just not when they've been used for pickling. Well apart from chilli vodka. That goes down a treat :D
That's why I was wondering about different uses for sloe
My gran used to make a cracking sloe and blackberry jam, I think she used it in chutney as well.
Google might turn something up :)
sloe chutney.
http://www.sloe.biz/pip/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=500&p=2314&hilit=chutney#p2314
Globetrotter.uk
31-08-2009, 17:58
how about drying them, would they be a tasty snack?