Steep, simmer or sweeten
The sloe berry in its natural form is tart and tannic, not something you want to pick on a walk. Use it in cooking when steeped, simmered or sweetened, and you’ll feel you’re onto something, giving your home cooking a new dimension.
“A true celebration of slow, seasonal living
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Making your own produce from foraged fruit is a seasonal ritual that connects you to the rhythms of life and landscape. It’s immensely satisfying too and the perfect activity for an autumn afternoon.
Foraging sloes - from hedge to kitchen
Hedgerows are still full of sloes so get picking before it’s too late. They’re easy to spot, given their bright colour and cloudy bloom. It’s easy and quick work to fill a bowl. When you get home, wash and dry the berries, removing any stems and start cooking with them. The berries freeze well if you don’t have the time to use them now.
Sloes are one of a nature’s wonders: their astringency is overpowering but with the right recipes, you can turn th Their astringent tang may seem forbidding, but with sugar, time, and a little imagination, sloes transform beautifully into liqueurs, jams, and sauces that taste of the season itself.
Drinks With Sloes
First and foremost, do you wait until the first frost before picking your sloes for steeping in alcohol? You can but you can always put them in the freezer overnight so that their skins break. Alternatively, you can prick each sloe with a fork to allow the juices to permeate into the alcohol.
Sloe gin
The Bottle Co.
Sloe gin is the most popular thing to do with the fruit and it's very simple, requiring just sloes and sugar. There is a school of thought that you steep the berries in gin and leave for several months. You then add sugar to taste after filtering out the berries and any sediment. As the weeks progress, the berries infuse the spirit with beautiful jewel like colours, culminating in a liqueur that's perfect for sipping on a cold day or adding to some fizz. You can of course do this recipe with vodka or brandy, or infuse with spices like cinnamon or vanilla for a touch of festive spirit. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Vodka
Greedy Gourmet
Why not try sloe vodka for a change? It's the same process. Given the taste of vodka is more neutral, sloes really are the star ingredient here and do the talking. Ideally you'll leave the steeping ingredients for at least three months to allow the flavours to develop but no longer than a year. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Gin Fizz
BBC Food, Wayne Collins
Once you're sloe gin is ready, try a sloe gin fizz. Just add some soda or tonic water and you can sweeten to taste with some sugar syrup. Wayne Collins' recipe suggests garnishing with a sprig of mint and a blackberry. Find the recipe here.
The Best Wild Cordial
As you'll discover, sloes aren't all about alcohol and if you're after a refreshing non alcoholic beverage, try this cordial recipe, which gently coaxes the flavour from the berries. There are a number of steps, where you simmer the berries and you'll need sterilised bottles. Once done, seal the bottles and they'll keep for a few months in a cold place. Mix the cordial with water or make a mocktail or use on puddings as a fruity syrup. Find the recipe here.
Syrups, Jams
Sloe Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Kitchen & Other Stories
This recipe is all about simmering and reduction until you have a richly coloured intense liquid. Be sure to keep the pulp to use in another recipe. It can be stored up to a year in sterilised bottles. You definitely need to try this recipe. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Jam
Delyth Cooks
Ring the changes and make sloe jam this year. Have it on toast for breakfast or why not try it with cheese and crackers. You could add a spoonful or two to a winter crumble or add to fizzy water for a refreshing drink. Find the recipe here.
Hedgerow Jelly
BBC Food, Pam Corbin
This hedgerow jelly is a mix of crab apples, sloes, damsons, rosehips or elderberries, all good foraging fruit. Given the fruit is strained once cooked, you only need to remove leaves and stalks before washing. Crab apples have high levels of pectin so the jelly should set easily. Perfect to have with roast lamb Find the recipe here.
Sloe Syrup Recipe
Wildwalks South West - Rachel Lambert
Rachel Lambert's recipe for this thick syrup is reminiscent of tart plums, with a background of dry sloes and dark sugar (we'd use muscovado sugar). Rachel suggests drizzling the syrup over porridge or in her Sloe Treacle Tart recipe (see below) – where that dryness disappears completely. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Gin Cranberry Sauce
Supper In The Suburbs
Here's a boozy cranberry sauce, full of Christmas flavour. When making the sauce, the stones of the fruit that have been used to infuse the gin leave a slight nutty or almond flavour behind which is delicious so do bear this in mind when making sloe gin. To cook this, you swap out some of the liquid (orange juice in our case) and replace with alcohol. With this recipe, you just use alcohol. Find the recipe here.
Cook With Sloes
Venison and Slow Gin Stew
Olive Magazine
This recipe is a combination of warming stew, sloe gin and a cheesy polenta. You'll need time on your hands to allow the stew to cook slowly but you'll be richly rewarded. Serve with gremolata (parsley, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil) which rounds off the flavours perfectly. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Gin and Blackberry Jelly
BBC Food, Valentine Warner
How about rounding off a rich meal with a grown up alcohol infused jelly for pudding. It's simple to make and looks dramatic when served in glasses. Just make sure you leave enough time for the jelly to set. Find the recipe here.
Winter Warming Sloe Treacle Tart
Wildwalks SouthWest - Rachel Lambert
You really must try this: it's a rich fruity treacle tart with a crumbly oatmeal pastry. Serve warm with cream or ice cream. Rachel Lambert was inspired by Swedish and German friends who encouraged her to make sloe syrup which in turn resulted in this wonderful (and different) treacle tart. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Snacks
Sticky Sloe and Nut Cluster
Wild Walks South West - Rachel Lambert
We've saved the best recipes to last and these gooey crunchy clusters of sloes and nuts are the bees' knees. And you can make them from the leftover fruit of sloe syrup. The full recipe can be found in Rachel's book Wild and Sweet. Find the recipe here.
Sloe Gin Chocolate Bark
Island Wild Food
Another recipe that makes use of sloes that have been steeping in gin. Try this combination of white and dark chocolate, sloes from your gin and a little sloe gin, plus some toasted almonds or other nuts. The bark is simple to make and tastes superb. Find the recipe here.