The Cottage Smallholder

Hi Sue (and jellytot),

My suggestion, odd as it may seem, is try leaving it a while! I recently made raspberry and redcurrant jam, the redcurrants were under-ripe when I picked & froze them, and the jam was VILE at the setting point. When I test the set, I always lick the jam on the finger that has tested the crinkle, and I was wincing with the mouth fur, even though it was sweet and smelt lovely. This was the same batch of jam that leapt out of the pan all over the cooker top, so I was rather down and irritable about turning all my fruit into inedible jam. I jarred it up and ignored it for a week. Didn't even try the part jar, I was so annoyed. Finally I tasted it, all the fur was gone, though it is still pleasantly sharp! Rather runny, that's another story....

Good luck with the later batches!

Hi, and apologies for the late reply as I just saw this forum while wondering whether to make a sloe jelly.

I think the answer to your problem might be to pick the sloes after the first few days of frost. The problem with furry tongue is due to tannins in the sloes, the same thing that makes your tongue furry when you drink red wine. According to the (never wrong!) wikipedia, the blackthorn tree should withdraw tannins from the fruit in response to the first few days of frost. This effect is apparently not replicated by popping the fruits in the freezer, though perhaps that has other desirable effects, and it certainly didn't hurt my sloe gin last year.

So perhaps now is just the right time to try another batch. I'm just about to head out and pick some now. All the best with it.