• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
    • Copyright
    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact / PRs / Review Policy / Link Policy
  • Recipe Index
  • Ingredients
  • As Seen
  • Credit Crunch Munch
  • Extra Veg
  • Work With Me
Fuss Free Flavours

Fuss Free Flavours

Easy recipes you will make again | Travel | Reviews

  • Home
  • All Recipes
    • Quick & Easy
    • Recipes by Course
      • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
      • Main Meal
      • Side Dishes
      • Drinks
      • Starters & Light Bites
      • Desserts & Puddings
      • Baking
        • Biscuits and cookies
        • Bread Recipes
        • Cake
        • Cupcakes
        • Muffins
        • Pie
      • Soup
      • Salad
      • Dips, Dressings, & Sauces
      • Easy Jam, Jelly & Preserve Recipes
    • Recipes by Cuisine
      • American
      • Chinese
      • French
      • Italian
      • Other Cuisines
      • Vegetarian Recipes
      • Vegan Recipes
  • Recipes by Main Ingredient
    • Beef
    • Poultry
    • Pork
    • Lamb
    • Game
    • Fish & Seafood
    • Beans & Lentils
    • Pasta
    • Grains & Rice
    • Fruit
    • Vegetables
    • Dairy
    • Booze
  • Travel
    • Rest of Europe
    • French
    • Rest of the world
    • Food Origins and Stories
You are here: Home / Recipes / Recipes by Holiday & Season / Autumn / Sloe Syrup – Harvesting the Blackthorn

Sloe Syrup – Harvesting the Blackthorn

Published on November 7, 2013 by Helen 24 Comments
Last Updated on August 27, 2020

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Sloe Syrup - Harvesting the BlackthornSloes are not just for gin.  Although sloe gin is one of my favourite drinks and picking sloes and making it is a yearly ritual.   Every time I pick sloes I do wonder who persevered and found ways of making these bitter tannic berries edible.  And I am grateful.

Sloe syrup is a quick win, very easy to make and can be added to wine or champagne making a hedgerow Kir, or to cakes and to flavour ice cream. 

It’s a great idea to identify the white blossom in spring, and make a note of where the trees are for harvest in autumn.

A collage of two pictures of a blackthorn tree, showing white blossom.

Table of Contents

  • Preserving Sloe Syrup 
  • Sloe Syrup – Harvesting the Blackthorn
    • Ingredients  1x2x3x
    • Instructions 
    • Nutrition

Preserving Sloe Syrup 

Update August 2020  – I’ve had several questions about preserving sloe syrup and I think (but haven’t tested) the best way would be to use a Campden tablet to stop and fermentation or mould growth.  

You need to crush, dissolve the tablet and then add to each bottle.  See my Elderflower Cordial post for full details of  how to use Campden tablets. 

Sloe Syrup - Harvesting the Blackthorn

Sloe Syrup - Harvesting the Blackthorn

Helen Best-Shaw
Sloe syrup for drinks and ice cream
4.78 from 9 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 40 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Course Condiment
Cuisine Dairy free
Servings 500 ml
Calories 8 kcal

Ingredients
  

Equal quantities of:

  • 450 g sugar
  • 1 L sloes
  • 1 L water

Instructions
 

  • Simply place all the ingredients into a saucepan and gently simmer for about 40 minutes until the sloes have burst and you have a beautiful deep purple syrup.
  • Pass through a metal sieve and then strain again through a cheese cloth. Keep in the fridge and use within a week, or freeze.

Nutrition

Serving: 500mlCalories: 8kcal
Keyword Sloe Syrup
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Related Posts

  • Recipe: Sloe Ice Cream - Harvesting the Blackthorn
  • A glass of sloe gin
    How to Make Sloe Gin
  • Recipe: Golden Syrup & Plum Cake
  • A glass of peach gin, garnished with peach and raspberry
    Peach Gin Recipe

Filed Under: Autumn, Drinks, Fruit, Quick & Easy, Recipes, Recipes by Holiday & Season, £ Ingredients: Sloes, Sugar

Previous Post: « Asian Eggs & Pancakes with ricotta, honey and figs
Next Post: Top Tips for Baking Brioche »

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




  1. Jude - A Trifle Rushed

    5 stars
    It looks heavenly!

    Reply
    • Helen

      thank you Jude.

      Reply
  2. Urvashi

    5 stars
    So lovely. I looooove sloes and this syrup sounds delightful

    Reply
    • Helen

      Make some! More recipes using the syrup coming soon!

      Reply
  3. Katie

    4 stars
    What a wonderfully simple recipe! I love the bottle – that’d make a lovely gift :-) I’ve got some sloes in the freezer and reckon I might just have to do this one… just so I can make cocktails with it!!!!

    Reply
    • Helen

      Thanks Katie! More sloe recipes soon.

      Reply
  4. Deena Kakaya

    5 stars
    Helen that’s just stunning. When food is that rich in colour, it becomes all the more alluring. I reckon your recipe would make for wonderful Christmas gifts. I’m looking forward to the ice cream now! X

    Reply
  5. Jen @ Blue Kitchen Bakes

    Yum yum yum! Love sloe gin and adding a sloe syrup to champagne sounds amazing

    Reply
    • Helen

      It works quite well, although I think cava would be just as good!

      Reply
  6. Antonia

    5 stars
    Who knew that sloes had another use besides gin?! Not sure if I will persuade the husband to part with any of his precious sloes but I can imagine this would be delicious.

    Reply
  7. Monica Shaw

    5 stars
    I love that your sloe creations are made with sloes from the farm. Orchard Cottage in a bottle.

    Reply
    • Helen

      Love to know where stuff comes from….

      Reply
  8. anna @ annamayeveryday

    5 stars
    I love sloe gin, so warming and delicious. I mix it with prosecco for my Christmas cocktail, a Sloe Vespa!!

    Reply
    • Andrew Roberts

      I increased the sugar to 1kg to improve the keeping quality and put the result in sterilised bottles. I’ll leave it for a couple of months to mature as the initial result is very tannic, which usually goes away after a while in storage.

      Reply
  9. Choclette

    4 stars
    Lovely idea. If ever I manage to pick sloes I make gin, but this looks to be a good alternative and that’s a fantastic photo you’ve created Helen. Looks like a book cover.

    Reply
    • Helen

      Thank you Chocolette. I was delighted with the photo. Was away from home and had a very very well lit room with the table in just the perfect place.

      Reply
  10. James

    I was surprised to find there are still some sloes today (Nov 2nd) here in Sussex, and so plump and juicy you could almost mistake them for damsons. I made your syrup. It’s pretty good, but I think it can be improved by a squeeze or two of lemon juice. But the main problem I’ve had is that it’s really quite tannic, and it coats your teeth and tongue. I don’t know if that’s due to the recipe, or maybe because the sloes are very late in the season. Maybe I’ll stick to sloe vodka in the future. Thank you anyway for sharing this recipe.

    Reply
    • Helen

      I made it very late in the season James, and it was tannic but not unpleasantly so. I’d certainly recommend that you try the ice cream recipe with it. That was delicious.

      Reply
  11. Janet

    5 stars
    I usually make sloe jelly but love the idea of sloe syrup. How much water and sugar are required?

    Reply
    • Helen

      Equal weights of each Janet.

      Reply
  12. DKT

    Why does it state ‘use within a week or freeze’? Surely the high sugar content acts as a preservative? Does it mean ‘use within a week of opening’? I want to make it as Christmas gifts but obviously need it to last without being frozen….

    Reply
    • Helen

      It can still ferment or go mouldy I’ve found, you could try adding Campden tablets, but I’ve not tested this.

      Reply
  13. Jan Sayward

    Hi
    If I wanted to keep the syrup longer could I use citric acid, if so what quantities to sugar please?

    Reply
    • Helen

      Hi Jan, I would use a Campden tablet to preserve. You need to crush it, then dissolve, and measure into each bottle. Full instructions for using Campden tablets are in my elderflower cordial post (https://fussfreeflavours.com/my-midsummer-nights-dream-elderflower-cordial/

      Reply

Primary Sidebar

About Me

Headshot of Helen Best-Shaw, Food Blogger at Fuss Free Flavours I'm Helen, full time freelance food writer, photographer and blogger. On this site you will find my fuss-free recipes, travel and reviews. Learn more here
Email Button, a white envelopw with orange box coming out of it Twitter Logo, bluw circle with a white bird Facebook logo, blue square with a white F inside You Tube Logo, a red box with the words You Tube on the inside Pinterest Logo, a red circle with white P on the inside Instagram Logo, a rainbow box with a square and circle inside of it Flipboard Logo - Red square with a white F on the inside

Press/As Seen On

Image-1

Subscribe

Footer

Latest Posts

Easy Chocolate Orange Fudge

Easy Chocolate Orange Fudge

A Guide to ’Nduja & Best ‘Nduja Recipes

A Guide to ’Nduja & Best ‘Nduja Recipes

Leftover Roast Chicken Fajitas

Leftover Roast Chicken Fajitas

Christmas Fudge Recipe

Christmas Fudge Recipe

Leftover Chicken Tacos

Leftover Chicken Tacos

Homemade Traditional  Salad Cream Recipe

Homemade Traditional Salad Cream Recipe

The Guild of Food Writers Logo

Member

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Helen Best-Shaw / Fuss Free Flavours - Easy Recipes You Will Make Again