We bottled last autumn’s sloe gin today. I’m sitting with a glass now and it’s absolutely delicious. The recipe has kind of evolved as we’ve sampled it along the way and added extra bits here and there, but I think we’ve kept a note of all the additions. Here’s what I reckon went into it.

Most recipes for sloe gin involve adding a few sloes and a bit of sugar to half a bottle of gin. I can’t be doing with such tinkering. Our sloe gin was made in a 10l nappy bucket specially bought from Mothercare.

Ingredients

• 3.5kg sloes
• 7 × 700ml bottles of cheap gin
• 1.5kg sugar

Method

Pick your sloes in October or November. Rinse them and cut a slit in each one. Add to a large bucket with lid.

Poor on 6 bottles of gin. Add the sugar. You may want to hold back some sugar and test as you go—adding more later is easy enough.

Agitate or stir daily for a couple of weeks, then weekly after that. At first not all the sugar will dissolve, but it will after a week or two.

Leave until about February. Then strain through muslin into another large container. Add the seventh bottle of gin to the sloes, rinse them well with it and strain into the rest.

Bottle and enjoy!