Recipe for Bullace Vodka
Comments(23)
A friend from Kent gave us a small bag of bullaces (a small type of plum that grows wild in English hedgerows) last October. We bunged them into a small Le Parfait jar, topping it up with sugar and vodka. We found the forgotten jar last weekend, hidden behind some pickled plums. It was excellent. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, it didn’t last very long.
As with all fruit liqueurs, you can use gin or vodka as the base. We have a preference for gin in fruit liqueurs but this bullace vodka was superb. We will certainly make it again if we can find some bullaces in the hedgerows around the village. Generally they are not ripe until late September or early October. There’s an old boy in our village who makes bullace brandy from an ancient secret recipe. I thought I might try to make some this year, using the proportions below. I made plum brandy a few years ago, but it took two years to mature before it was drinkable. It was still absolutely vile after one year. Three years on it was bliss.
Ingredients:
1lb/454gm of washed bullaces
6 ozs/168gm of white granulated sugar
1 75cl bottle of medium quality vodka
Sterilised 1ltr(at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle.
Method:
- Wash bullaces well and discard any bruised fruit. Prick them several times with a fork and place the fruit in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1litre bottle.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with vodka to the rim.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved.
- Then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year).
- Some people strain the potion (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for a further six months. We strain and bottle after a year. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than one year as the liqueur can be spoilt by leaving the fruit in too long.
Tips and tricks:
- The fruit will swell a little in the alcohol, so don’t fill your bottle/jar more than half full with fruit before you add the sugar and alcohol.
- Make more than you need the first year, so you can compare different vintages. This liqueur does improve over time.
- Some people drain the grog through muslin after a couple of months, to clarify the liqueur and bottle. We don’t bother as one old soak tipped that, once the vodka is drunk, you can pour medium sherry on the fruit and start all over again! The latter is devilish and drinkable within three months.
- Keep your fruit vodka away from the light as this will maintain the colour. Unless it is in a dark green or brown bottle.
- Every couple of months take a tiny sip. At this time add more sugar if it is too sharp for your taste.
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Thanks for the tips on bullace vodka, I usually make sloe gin and have just picked about 4 kilos, could not decide if they were sloes or not, but they did not all fit in the glass neck of wine and gin bottles so I realised they were not sloes. Have now started 4 bottles of bullace gin. Have pureed most of the fruit. Trouble is it gets expensive buying all the gin. All the wild plum chutney instead of bought mango chutney will not save enough to justify 10 bottles of gin!!! regards, Zena
Hi Zeena,
Thanks for dropping by. Yes the gin is expensive and can cause stares in the supermarket queue if you are buying several bottles at once! It’s delicious though, and definitely worth making.
Very excited to have got mine on the go now after you kindly identified that what I had foraged were bullaces. Thanks v much n can’t wait til it’s ready!
Hi Plumsource,
Thanks for reporting back. Bullace vodka is a great liqueur.
bullace make a very good jam.
we made it this year and last.
it takes patience to remove the stones – you could probably remove them during cooking.
thanks for the bullace vodka – I will be trying it this year.
Hi Emma,
Great to hear that bullaces make great jam. Our local bullaces (the green, wild greengage ones) are over now but I will remember this for next year. Thank you.
Thanks for this- My mum has a bullace tree in her garden and it is loaded this year!
Now we know what to do with them!
Hi Jen,
Happy brewing/jam making. They might make a good chutney too.
Hi all who view
I have been making sloe gin for years now and its great as Xmas presents, I had a go at making some Blackberry gin last year, it realy does give a full colour and tastes out of this world, perhaps a bit too good to give away. I found some bullace at the entrance to my mums farm a week or two back, I could not resist and hand the footwell of the car full in no time at all, so much easier than sloe berries, and worth all the time and expense for a real treat. Happy hunting all.
Hi Colin,
We find it hard to give away our raspberry gin! Glad that you found a good bullace harvest. Have you tried bullace brandy?
What do I do with a surfit of Aylesbury Prunes?!
You could try using them for fruit vodka. Apart from that I am sorry I don’t have a clue
I’ve had a sneaky slurp of my bullace vodka and it’s coming along nicely enough to give a bottle away to my brother who’s due on a delayed xmas visit on sunday! I will let the rest mature as long as I can wait. It tastes to me like cherries – yum! Thanks so much again for the tips.
Hi Plumsource
We cracked open our bullace gin last night when Danny’s brother came to stay. It was great, almost like roughish an Eau de Vie. I’ll definitely be making it again next year!
Made bullace vodka (found I have my own bullace tree which is now kept a secret)and after 6 months it is fantastic. Also did bullace martini(dry), and after a taste test with all my neighbours it was decided that I had to do a lot more next year.
Pop quiz…….why do the bullace in vodka float and the bullace in martini sink ???
I know this is late, but have a few ballace trees that are covered with fruit so if anyone live near Norwich they come the 5 or 6 miles and have as many as they can carry free
recipe says not to used ‘bruised fruit’ – I was hoping to use mirabelles I have previously frozen.
What do people think?
PS thank you for all these amazing tips and recipes (and I wish I lived near Norwich)
Hello Mandarama
Bruised fruit means Fruit with bad bits not frozen plums
Mirabelles sound great. All you need to know is go easy on the sugar (you can add more later on but you can’t take it away).
Great that you are enjoying the site.
Many thanks
I have already made sloe gin and am admiring its ‘cerise’ hue. Will defrost a batch of mirabelles this afternnon and make the plum brandy tomorrow.
Also intending to pick hedgerow grapes from a well hidden vine found last year, when I picked several carrier bags of ‘almost over’ fruit. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, this time round, and hope to make wine. My father was an avid country wine maker and I now have all his old (mainly simple)recipes etc
Happy to share them, once I’ve checked their outcomes
Hello Mandarama
How exciting – hedgerow grapes!
I’d love to hear how the wine recipes turn out.
Get that brandy recipe off the old geeza! That sounds wonderful
Have been reading all your liqueur recipes (as well as the recipe for celery soup which is how I found your site.) Have printed them all off and hope to be producing our own tipples in the coming year. My daughter and I have taken on an allotment this year and will be growing our own fruit as well as veg, once we got the plot in shape. Will let you know how our efforts turn out. Really like your site.
Hi Herb Robert
Sorry I missed your comment. No the old geazer is not going to share
Hi Margaret
Best of luck with your allotment! I’d love to hear how you are getting on.
Good luck with the tipples too. Always a good investment.