Ten Sloe Fruit Recipes
I love sloes. I love their flavour, colour and goodness. I love that they’re so common and easy to find. I’m not so keen on their thorns. Sloes are the fruits of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and have been used for thousands of years by humans as food. But what did they do with them?
We know about the traditions of sloe jelly and sloe gin, though I very much doubt that our ancestors just used these fruits to flavour drinks. Piles of sloe stones at archaeological sites imply more of a foodie use. One of the things I love about having a full-time business revolving around wild food, is that I can put lots of time aside for foraging. Time to read (about foraging) and experiment with processes, recipes, seasons and picking sites. Over the years I’ve acquired over ten sloe fruit recipes from friends, colleagues, books and my own experimentation.
Exploring Sloes for Food and Drink
I share more about sloes in ALL my foraging books (except the seaweed one!) and teach about sloes in my popular autumn foraging courses, there’s so much more I can tell you about them! A couple of winters ago I shared my proud, new creation for a Sloe Treacle Tart, you can find the recipe here. I’ve even written a song about sloes – the Sloes Song.
I’ve used sloes for sweet and savour dishes. Lapping up their vitamin C and antioxidants as if winter’s going to last for months (which it often feels like it does if you live in rural areas). So what are these ten or more recipes? Well, I save these recipes, tips for participants on my foraging courses. On a course there’s plenty of time to share, including wild tasters. And each course is followed up for an email of recipes and useful links. Meanwhile here’s a few tasty shots from my exploratory time in my kitchen with sloes. You can find out more about my foraging courses here.
10 Sloe Fruit Recipes
- Sloe Jam (in my Devon foraging book)
- Sloe and Apple Crumble Slices (in my Devon foraging book)
- Sloe Gin or VodkaĀ (in my Wild and Sweet book)
- Sloe Liqueur Chocolates (in my foraging book)
- Sticky Sloes (left-overs from making sloe syrup – from my Wild and Sweet book))
- Sticky Sloe and Nut ClustersĀ (in my Wild and Sweet book)
- Sloe SyrupĀ Ā (in my Wild and Sweet book)
- Sloe Treacle TartĀ (in my Wild and Sweet book)
- Ginned-up sloe puree (in my Wild and Sweet book)
- Sloe Gin Chocolate CakeĀ (in my Wild and Sweet book)
Hi Rachel
Would it be possible for you to send the recipes for the sloes. I live in Yorkshire and the time is now for sloes as well you know and on the farm there are huggins of them. Iām not a gin drinker but would like to make a syrup or cough remedy.
Hi Tracey, the sloe syrup recipe is part of my Sloe Treacle tart recipe, so you can access that here.
I enjoy making sloe gin. But here in France, white rum, very strong and cheap, is readily available. It goes with sloes magnificently. I mature it for 2-3 months, I see no need to keep it any longer. Filter|decant and keep it in the freezer. It keeps a fruity taste longer that way. Also, a shot straight out of a freezing bottle seems to go down a lot better! š – spirits are often sold at 37.5% now, so it might go a bit slushy. So long as it pours!
The left over sloes from making syrup taste just like sour cherries to me – so I use them as one of the fruits in my Christmas puddings. Don’t like glace cherries, donchernow.
Thanks for sharing Bill – sounds gorgeous!