bill425g6

Well, the smoked sloe gin turned out fantastic a 100% better than I would have ever thought. 3 of us had a tasting last night and it has a lovely smell and very smooth even for just being over a 1year old as I like mine 3yrs old. Pesky pigeon if you email me your address Ill send you some.

Picked the sloes,will smoke on friday and make the gin and anybody who's interested get back to me this time next year

There will be residue of some sort and smoking tends to dry the product. I leave mine for 10mths to a year before filtering and a further two years before drinking. I double filter them through fine coffee filters and this should get rid of most residues.Also will add some pure juice from pressed ripe berry's to make up for the dry smoked ones. I cant find any recipes and I honestly don't know if this will work but I think Ill try it this year.If its any good when I'm filtering it in a years time Ill send you some.

Ive been making Sloe Gin and all the other fruit for over 40yrs now. Heres what I'm thinking- Cold smoke the Sloes for 12hrs in oak and then make my Sloe gin the usual way. The question is has anybody experience of making Smoked Sloe gin or any other fruit?

Welcome from Ayr

If and when you are selling them put me down for 10.

I tel A1 Decoys today and they confirmed that they are Spring Steel. On the day in question one of the wings stopped working and when I had a look the wire on one side had broken. About 2hrs later the wire on the other Decoy had broken on one wing. I kept the Rotary spinning and it still continued to pull in pigeons but I think that any rotary would have worked that day. Anyhow the wire has a twist in the middle and it was at the base of the twist where they both broke. I wonder if they have applied heat to this area to make it bend easier and it has taken the temper out the steel and made it weak. The steel is about 1.5mm and working on the theory of probability it will happen again!

I bought a pair from A1 Decoys and on the second outing I broke the two wires which go through the wings. Altogether about 7hrs spinning. I had to buy two more wires from them and they cost £10 a pair so I wasnt impressed. On the positive side they certainly brought the pigeons over to have a look and from a distance they look very realistic. On my 3rd outing I shot 147 and I had more pigeons than normal over them so they do work. If any body knows where I can buy the spring wire cheap let me know

I leave mine 12mths before filtering them and I leave the sloe gin 3yrs altogether before drinking. Fill a demijohn half full of your used sloes add two bottles of Med dry sherry of good quality, Shake every day for a week. Leave in a dark place for two months and filter. You can chop them up and add nuts and raisens and make liquer chocolate or chop up and freeze and add to trifles and xmas cakes for a slightjy different taste. It doesnt work to add more gin to the used sloes as youve actually extcacted all the natural sugar and colour from the sloes.

I do a few mackerel hot smoked in the Bradley for other people as I dont like them much as they come back up on me. I think you should follow Pole stars recipe on this one as it sounds excellent.The Bradley smoker I have a lot of experience. First of all you want to get hold of a Bradley instuction manual and a Bradley recipe book,they normally come with the smoker but any outlet will send you them. I dont know which one you have as there are a few problems with them. If it has a slide control below the door you have to watch that fat or liquid doesnt run out the door and onto the element as it will burn out.The one I had I glued a channel above it and the fat run into a tray.If it doesnt have the slide you will be ok but the liquid will still run out the door. I have the latest digitial one and it still runs out the door. The heating element inside make sure you dont place anything on the trays above that will drip onto it as it will blow. Make sure that the tempreture is well above what you want to cook the fish at as when you open the door and put the fish in it will drop a lot. The more you put in the smoker the more the tempreture drops and the longer it takes to heat back up. The digital one is really good for this as you can set time and tempreture the others are trial and error.If you are serious about smoking a good book is Keith Erlandson home smoking and curing about £7 Amazon.Buy a spare element as you dont want it to go in the middle of smoking especially if you cant get the meat or fish easy. You have to watch depending on the model that the biscuit advance is working. It should advance a biscuit every 20mins. When starting you should push the red button twice and leave it. As for the pigeons it will tell you everything in the book.Pigeon is lovely smoked I use hickory, fish I prefer Oak then Apple. Anyhow good luck!!

Take a couple of cups of Blackberrys add 4oz of icing sugar,Blitz and push through a fine strainer. One of the best cold sauces to pour over Vanilla icecream.

Here is my tupence worth! I dont drink my Sloe gin until its 3yrs old. Ive found after 3yrs it doesnt seem to get any better and I have some Blueberry 5/7yrs old and Sloe etc. If you can fill 3 Demijohns with Sloe gin wait one year and filter them,I use coffee filters which makes it very clear. You can pour two bottles of med dry sherry into each Demi and make Sloesherry takes about three months. Or take all the stones out chop them up add to chocolate and make Liquer chocolate. Or freeze them and add to Trifles or Christmas puddings. Make one new Demijohn and drink one of the three thats a year old,do the same next year and so on till you end up that they will be 3yrs every time you drink one. You will also taste the difference as it matures over the years. They say you shouldnt pick Sloes until the first frost which is probably correct. Try this, I pick them when you can eat them and they are sweet,trouble is theres a thin red line between them being sweet and all of them falling off the trees. On a good year pick 3 times more than you need and freeze them as you will get years that there are none at all. If all of the above fails you can buy it in the Supermarket?

Im offshore and you can only get me by email until 1st September,after that Ill be at home for a months shooting and fishing (hard life)

If youve mastered the pics let me know how to do it . I was trying to resize them but couldnt. Im at work just now and our company blocks a lot of material on the PC especially anything to do with guns,cartridges etc so it might be something to do with that and very slow internet. Cant wait to see the pics

Hope you dont mind me stealing the name for the box when you mentioned Sentry box. Ive just got to find some stainless trays the right size and its finished.It will get well smoked in September with Salmon,pigeons and duck.

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Fishing is my main hobby and over the past few years Ive gathered about 80 Raps that have lost the front end. I also believe I wont be able to get them from any of the companys that make them,but all is not lost. Last year I made quite a few by hand using a blade as the mould. I indented the front with a countersink these worked very well but time consuming to make. The plastic wasnt that good as it still broke hitting rocks. I have different plastic now that doesnt break so we will see. I also looked at modelling clay to make a mould and then make a resin to pour in but Ive been told that the resin will shatter so havnt took it any further. If anybody out there knows of a resin that wont shatter I have proffesional moulds and it wouldnt be a problem making the blade. If that doesnt work Ill start making them of alloy or aluminum and paint it or leave it the fish wont notice anyway. Billy if you are into smoking salmon and game I wrote an interesting post in Food and Drink,smoked greylag check it out

Thanks Ill see how I get on Ill try it but cant seem to get them anywhere,any joy Ill post it

Anyone know where I can get the front blades for 10cm Rapalas

Its not a fan its a smoke generator which burns wood biscuits every 20 mins. You will get one from any Bradley smoker site.The generator advances a new biscuit and the old one fall out so i put a tray of oak dust underneath just to create for smoke. What I used to do was a gas ring under a big tray of dust and light until it heated up and started smouldering and then switch it off. The new smoker is in place Ill try and put some photos on later

Ive tried photo bucket and seems to work,Thanks

http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/billy_bennett0/library/

http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/billy_bennett0/media/P1020036_zps4c7d168c.jpg.html