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Drink

Sloe Gin

A gin infused with sloes, bitter almonds, sugar candy, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Sloe Gin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bitter almonds very fine.

  2. Crush the sugar candy.

  3. Bruise or prick the sloes all over.

Steep and bottle

  1. Combine all ingredients in a small cask and stir thoroughly.

  2. Let it sit for three months, then strain until clear and bottle.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + gintop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Almond + gintop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sloes
Provide the main fruit flavour and colour as their juice and skins steep into the gin.
Old tom gin
Acts as the solvent that draws flavour and colour out of the sloes and almonds.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp, astringent taste of the sloes.
Sugar candy
Adds slower-dissolving sweetness that rounds out the drink over the long steep.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a nutty, almond aroma and background bitterness to the finished gin.

The step that matters

Bruise or prick the sloes all over. Breaking the skins lets the gin reach the juice and pigments inside. Whole, unbroken sloes release far less colour and flavour during the steep.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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