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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 finely and smash the sugar candy.

  2. Combine the chopped almonds, smashed candy, sloes (bruised or pricked), and gin in a cask.

Steep and bottle

  1. Stir thoroughly, then seal the cask.

  2. After three months, bottle the mixture.

Optional sweetening

  1. For a sweeter gin, add an additional ¼ pound of sugar.

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. Gin + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Gin + almondtop 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 deep colour as their juices and skins steep into the gin.
Gin
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and colour from the sloes and almonds.
Sugar candy
Adds sweetness and a rounder body to the finished gin.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a distinctive nutty, bitter aroma and flavour.
Sugar
Adds extra sweetness when a sweeter gin is wanted.

The step that matters

Bruise or prick the sloes. Sloes are very hard and tart, and their flavour and colour sit under the skin. Breaking the skin lets the gin reach them, so the infusion is richer instead of thin and weak.

“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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