Sloe Gin 2

You may have guessed that I overcame my reluctance to go back to the supermarket & buy more gin!

Yup, I felt pretty bad standing there at the checkout with my four litres of gin & 2 kilos of sugar...

[If I knew the French for "after 2 ½ years of being teetotal, yes I celebrated both the ridding of our house from builders, and the sale of our home in Brixton (and had a few glasses in between!), but I'm back on the wagon now. And it's for making liqueurs" - sounds like protesting too much, doesn't it? Better that I just brazen it out...]

If I make up my mind about the damson schnapps (or still contemplating some prunelle eau-de-vie), I'm going to shop in another town!

It was very satisfying to make so many different jars of liqueur-in-waiting, and I now have [what I privately think of as] my "secret gin cupboard".

Oh, that looks so much worse than it sounds!!

[And in my head it does sound pretty bad]

The reason it's secret is that I want the results to be a surprise, and unless anyone reads this & rats on me to David, there's no way he will notice that I'm building up stocks of "goodies"...

Well, if I die, in a couple years time he might wonder what's in that cupboard.

But I reckon it's pretty safe till then!

So why is a teetotaller making litres of flavoured digestifs?

Well, I guess it's a combination of an instinct to put stuff by in times of plenty for when times are hard (country background), liking to make things to please other people (that's surely the reason we cook for friends?), and liking the magic of the process...

The fascination with alchemy is still as strong in the 21st century, otherwise why would people spend so much money on "cures" for everything from weight loss to stopping smoking (to making yourself irresistible to women!)?

And quoting from Fiona Neville's friend Gilbert:

“Remember that the combination of gin, sloes and sugar is always better than the separate ingredients, no matter what you do.”

Oh, and I'd always heard that sloe gin makes a great alternative to cassis in a kir royale!