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#1
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
In article , David in Normandy writes: | | Nick - are these sloes? I've had a look at some images on Google and | think they are. We've got several of these shrubs in the hedgerow around | our property, laden with fruit. I'd like to have a go at a jam recipe | but a second opinion would be good before discovering I've made woody | nightshade jam or some such poison! | | http://www.avisoft.co.uk/Photos/Hpim5809a.jpg | | http://www.avisoft.co.uk/Photos/Hpim5810b.jpg Yup. To check, the stone will be obviously plum-like, with a kernel with a strong bitter almond flavour (don't eat too many) and the flesh plum-like and greenish. The taste will screw your mouth up. There aren't any plants I know of other than other Prunus species that you can confuse them with, which have naturalised themselves in the UK. Just remember to avoid the laurels, not to eat too many kernels, and you are quite safe. The fruit structure of that section of Prunus is very distinctive, and can be confused only with some tropical fruits. And those leaves are exactly right. I advise making jelly - removing sloe stones is hell. Also, use 50/50 apple and sloe juice (or even 75/25), as pure sloe jelly is too fierce even for me. Taste the juice once you have extracted it. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#3
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
In article , David in Normandy writes: | | Thanks Nick. I've just eaten a few berries and yes they are quite bitter | but with a definite plum taste / texture. Crunching a kernel I could | also definitely taste marzipan/almond. So it looks like a 100% match to | your description. | | My mouth is still quite dry now, several minutes after eating them. They | are quite moorish in a strange savoury sort of way. They have that effect - now join the very select club of people who like to eat sloes raw :-) | So it just leaves the question of whether to pick them now or let them | ripen a bit more. They seem "nearly" ripe being quite flesh but they | resist being pulled. I guess leaving them longer would probably mean the | birds eating them first. Maybe. The birds typically don't go for them until quite late, as they don't contain much carbohydrate. I would pick them as and when convenient - traditionally, they were left until the first frost, but that isn't essential. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#4
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
On 23 Sep, 18:12, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article , David in Normandy writes: | | Thanks Nick. I've just eaten a few berries and yes they are quite bitter | but with a definite plum taste / texture. Crunching a kernel I could | also definitely taste marzipan/almond. So it looks like a 100% match to | your description. | | My mouth is still quite dry now, several minutes after eating them. They | are quite moorish in a strange savoury sort of way. They have that effect - now join the very select club of people who like to eat sloes raw :-) | So it just leaves the question of whether to pick them now or let them | ripen a bit more. They seem "nearly" ripe being quite flesh but they | resist being pulled. I guess leaving them longer would probably mean the | birds eating them first. Maybe. The birds typically don't go for them until quite late, as they don't contain much carbohydrate. I would pick them as and when convenient - traditionally, they were left until the first frost, but that isn't essential. Regards, Nick Maclaren. Pick them now if they are just slightly fleshy feeling - they don't just fall off the bushes like plums or apples, you have to actually pick them. I get mine near Melrose and I've never in 30 years seen them so good. On making sloe gin, the accepted technique in this day and age is to put them in the freezer and let them unthaw slowly - that breaks the skins and enables the juice extraction. If you are prepared to pick enough (2 of us picked over a dozen pounds in under an hour the other day), a good wine can be made with sloes - a bit of extra fruit is required to enhance to the flavour. The recipe I found starts off with 60 lbs of sloes !! Rob |
#5
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
In article . com, Rob G writes: | | On making sloe gin, the accepted technique in this day and age is to | put them in the freezer and let them unthaw slowly - that breaks the | skins and enables the juice extraction. Or just don't bother. Given a reasonable passage of time, the gin will absorb the juice without needing to do anything. But slicing them with a knife or freezing them certainly speeds things up. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#6
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ... ... I would pick them as and when convenient - traditionally, they were left until the first frost, but that isn't essential. If you pick them during a frost there's the advantage that your hands will be so numb you won't feel the thorns. The disadvantage is that blood gets everywhere :- ) Mary Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#7
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Sloes/damsons (slightly OT)
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ... They have that effect - now join the very select club of people who like to eat sloes raw :-) Me too. They are, however, much better after 3 months soaking in gin. Duncan |
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