Sloe Reactions

IN Flavour Science
13th January 2015/by Mark Williams

As we re-engage with forgotten wild ingredients, its always interesting to note those which have never dropped out of favour.

The most obvious of these in the UK is the blackberry. Its popularity isn’t hard to understand as it scores highly in three key areas: abundance, ease of identification and deliciousness. I’d go further and say that its instant “pick-and-enjoy” gratification combined with its success in urban environments make it the only wild ingredient that over 50% of the UK population can recognise.

The perennial popularity of sloe berries is rather harder to understand. They are fairly innocuous looking and too sour for most people to enjoy unprocessed. Yet (although they aren’t nearly so widely gathered as blackberries) they do seem to have remained in high esteem with many otherwise forage-a-phobic people for generations. Why?

The answer is booze. There is a place in the psyche of most Brits for sloe gin. It sits in a warm, cosy nook alongside mince pies, rhubarb crumble and Morcambe & Wise. People who couldn’t care less about elderflowers or chanterelles go all misty-eyed and mysterious when you mention sloes. They will effuse about their “special recipe” yet go all secretive about their harvesting spots. None of this is surprising – sloe foraging is pleasant, meditative work and sloe gin rarely short of delicious. But what astonishes me is that so few think to extend those deep satisfactions to other ingredients. Rosehips? Hawthorns? Rowan buds? Nope. Sloe, sloe, QUICK QUICK, sloe!

Sloes are delicious, deeply sour, mini-plums. Judiciously infused into white spirits and balanced with an appropriate amount of sweetness, they make for a great drinks ingredient. That so many people have a “special” recipe is a lovely entry point to the wider world of foraged mixology. It’s about finding out what works for you.

For me, the essential joy of the sloe is its sourness (i’m one of few who like to nibble them raw from the tree). For my taste, many people over-sweeten their sloe gin to the point where it tastes like a syrupy liqueur. If that’s how you like it, then fair enough, but I don’t really see the point in adding all the sweetness early on in the process. Surely much better to infuse into unsweetened alcohol, then add a bespoke sweetener when it is served? As well as catering for a variety of tastes, this allows all sorts of quirks and flourishes to be introduced a la minute.

Harvesting sloes

I urge you to experiment, play, simplify, complicate and refine your sloe gin recipe

I urge you to experiment, play, simplify, complicate and refine your sloe gin recipe. I have never made mine the same twice. And who says you have to restrict yourself to gin? Here are some ideas:

Standard sloe gin requires only that you infuse sloes into gin. Everything else is entirely at your discretion
3 months is generally considered the minimum period to achieve a satisfactory level of infusion
You can do the whole process in 5 minutes if you use an ice cream whipper and NO2 – see here
Pricking or freezing then defrosting your sloes before steeping speeds up infusion. Before freezers were common, sloes were generally picked after the first frost had bletted them
The longer you leave the sloes to infuse, the deeper the alcohol will penetrate. Almond flavours will start to develop as the alcohol penetrates the stone (usually takes at least 1 year to become noticeable). Some people add almond essence
Try adding blackthorn blossoms, meadowsweet or rowan leaf buds during the infusion process, to add natural, wild almond-like flavours
Never use any gin better than the second cheapest in the shop (min 37.5% abv). Vodka works just as well. It would be a crime to mask the subtleties of The Botanist with this process, though pleasing and complimentary results can be had by adding a few to a bottle, or a la minute to a rapid infusion
Unsweetened sloe gin is surprisingly good, and can always be sweetened later. Try using honey, cloveroot syrup or birch sap syrup. I often serve mine with fruit leathers for a sweet and sour mouth journey
Try infusing sloes into vermouths and amaros, or juicing to make sours