What to do with all those gin-soaked sloes

by **phlogiston** » Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:32 pm

After the sloe and crabapple gin was decanted off I was left with about 3kg of fruit. In 2 batches, put it into the air still in a perforated container with about 750ml of water and set it going. Collected 550ml at 45% of fruity, gin-like spirit that tastes good with tonic and I think will make some more very good sloe gin.

by **Phantom** » Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:26 pm

When I took the spirit of the fruit from last years batch (just started drinking it now :-P ), I tried to see if you could get anything out of the fruit with a steam juice extractor, but nothing.
So unless you can get a bit more trying it your way, then I\'d suggest that you make jam i.e. make the base jam nice and runny then it\'s easier to pass it through a sieve to remove stones and skin.
Should make a nice enough one for brekky toast........

by **hic52** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:08 am

my wife makes a lovely trifle with the fruits - keep the kids away from it though !!

by **phlogiston** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 10:34 pm

Phantom, I got a half litre bottle at drinking strength, (having made about 3 litres of sloe and apple gins). I guess the problem with the steam juicer is that the alcohol boils off and is lost.
I\'ve also added gin-soaked damsons to home made ice cream. MMmmmmm.

by **Phantom** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:58 pm

Well, how about just adding some other fruit, some sugar and vodka, then just let it dissolve etc and then push fruit/liquid through sieve or a mouli if you have one as it should make a lovely ice cream syrup....

by **Whiskers** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:42 pm

phlogiston-what type of perforated container did you use?

by **phlogiston** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:57 pm

Hi Whiskers -- it came from Homebase. I think it was sold as a kitchen utensil holder. It\'s about the size and shape of a 2-litre Kilner jar, made of stainless steel with lots of holes in it.

by **Whiskers** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:12 pm

Thanks PH Logiston-i have distilled spirit soaked fruit in Air still in a tin with holes punched in it-made an \"interesting\" brew-will probably end up with about a litre at 40% from about 2-3lbs of fruit.

by **Phantom** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:51 pm

I saw a good recipe from \"Rachel Allen\" on one of the satellite channels, she made like a jam/fruit sauce from sloes and then used it for a fruit sponge pudding.
Obviously you\'d have to add some water and sugar to the fruit and start it cooking but once it\'s coming off the stones/pips, then you should be able to strain them out the mix.
Got to be worth trying, as sugar would probably sweeten up any gin/juniper flavouring left in the fruit and it would heat/evaporate off any alcohol as well.
Damn! now there\'s an idea..... Sloe gin Jam. Just enough sugar to sweeten it enough and added pectin to set it. Should, well in theory, taste like a plum jam......