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 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Aldi it is so for this year!

Many thanks.

For those still interested in the Sloe recepies.........

http://www.sloe.biz/ .........great resource. The all sloe gin forum is worth a browse also for various tips.

One tip I picked up elsewhere was instead of freezing, place all of the sloes on a flat baking tray and run the cheese grater over them. They all get cut and burst open. Saves what looks like to be a lot of work!

Hi, I usually lurk on this site and I find so much helpful information.

I have found over the years that the best colour of the final sloe gin is obtained by pricking the sloe with a needle, minimum 3 pricks per sloe. I just sit at the kitchen table for a couple of hours, anticipating the final product.  I buy the cheapest gin I can lay my hands on and it's fine. I also add a small amount of kirsch to each final bottle. Great drink to sip when you've been out in the garden on a cold winter's day.

Hello Biggles, welcome in from the cold ;D. The kirsch sounds a great addition. Thanks for the tip.

Welcome to the site Biggles... we prick our sloes too!  ;D

Living in the South East I try to do a cheap day trip or a few days in France at this time of year, as French supermarkets sell "Alcohol pour fruits" which is cheaper than gin or vodka on the same shelf. I have never seen it in the UK. I have just brought back two litres of it.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what alcohol you put the sloes in as their powerful taste masks any subtleties of flavour that there might be between various gins.

PS I have never pricked the sloes. I think the delicious flavour seeps out whatever you do, though maybe the pricking speeds it up a bit.

I'm not a fan of the freezer technique. I do it the old fashioned way by sticking a pin in each sloe because I found that sloe gin made from frozen sloes tended to turn brown after a couple of years.
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My sloe gin has never managed to last for more than 18 months no matter how much i make LOL

It is now the end of October and I can find no Sloe's,

I picked some about 3 weeks ago they are in the frezzer, went to get some more and there are none,  :(

has anyone else got 'missing' sloes????  ???

They move fast...  ::)

I don't prick sloes, but thought that the tool I use for walnuts might help if anyone wants to have a go at making one, which is basically a 3 ft long thinnish piece of timber with nails knocked through one end so they stick out. The walnuts go into a large bin and get bashed and stirred around vigorously for a few minutes and job done. Something similar might be less time consuming than pricking with a needle  ;D

Forget the gin, use brandy. I have just spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating a 60th birthday and it knocks spots off the gin. ;D ;D

How to 'prick' sloes and using brandy instead is not my problem,

it's finding the 'bl***y' sloes,

Exactly, Widgetwilk.......I ahve three, yes THREE sloes on my tree this year :o
Aldi supplies are safe this year, Emaggie ;D

Quote from: Tin Shed on October 29, 2008, 20:23:43
Exactly, Widgetwilk.......I ahve three, yes THREE sloes on my tree this year :o
Aldi supplies are safe this year, Emaggie ;D

Thanks for the reply, thought it was only this part of the country [Norfolk] that was missing sloes, someone wrote in out local paper that there was no sloes this year and the reply was the 'weather'
had a look in Tesco, they has none, will try else where,
but my Daughter has a bottle left over from last year.

I've never seen them for sale before :o None to be had in the hedge rows here either, but then there were no wild plums either....not one.

I meant ready made bottle of sloe gin ;)

Silly me ::) ;D