On Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:57:56 +0100, Kath
wrote:

On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:12:03 +0100, Mike Lyle wrote:

In article ,
says...

Ihave just read on the Plants for a Future site that sloes contain hydrogen cyanide
(particularly the seeds).

So do plum, cherry, peach and almond kernels and apple pips

We have made sloe liqueur for several years now but this year we decided to try one bottle
where we put the sloes into a blender, instead of pricking them.

Will the resultant liqueur be poisonous?

No more deadly than cider, plum and peach brandy, amaretto and jam.

Janet.

Even if the seeds are damaged? I know that the above fruits have the same in their stones
but they are very hard and don't get damaged.

I would be very cautious. I have it in my mind that about a cup-full
of say peach or apricot kernels contain enough cyanide (actually
amygdalin, a compound containing cyanide) to be fatal. If your sloe
stones were broken open and the kernels exposed and chopped up, then
the cyanide they contain will be leached out into the gin (amygdalin
is extracted from ground almond or apricot kernels using ethanol).
Whether there would be enough to kill you in a single tot, I've no
idea, but it would be tragic if you found out the hard way.

If all the stones of a pound of sloes per bottle of spirit have been
smashed in the blender (damn fine blender you must have there, ma'am),
I imagine the resultant beverage will be undrinkable anyway.

It isn't. It barely touched them but I thought that even if only the outer bit (kernel?)
was damaged, then the alcohol could leach out the toxin. Like puncturing a balloon.

It's the inside bit that's the kernel: the hard outer layer is just
the shell. But if the stones aren't appreciably damaged, I don't think
I'd worry. To put your mind at rest, maybe strain this one bottle
after only a couple of weeks instead of giving it the full process,
and mix it in with the others when bottling-time comes round? (I
suspect that amygdalin is water-soluble, but since gin is usually
about 60% water, it doesn't matter whether it's water- or
alcohol-soluble!)

--
Mike.