Two recipes: Wild Damson Gin and Sloe Gin recipes
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 711 comments
Wild damsons are a beautiful rich dark colour
Unlike sloes, wild damsons are hard to find. For every thirty wild plum trees there may be just one wild damson tree. When I spot wild damsons in the hedgerows, they are harvested into a special bag.
These, and the diminutive bullace, are the kings of hedgerow fruit. These tiny fruit make such an irresistible liqueur that overnight guests have actually turned down Danny’s famous cooked breakfast, and gone back to bed to sleep off the excesses of the night before.
Our damson and sloe gin is not the thick ultra sweet variety. We prefer the sugar to enhance rather than shield the flavour. Every three months or so it’s sampled and, if necessary, topped up with sugar. Usually no extra sugar is needed.
We try to keep our damson and sloe gin well away from the drinks tray! Each year we make a lot of fruit gin and vodka (more recipes to follow, in time). Sloe gin is the big craze at the moment around here, as sloes are more plentiful.
Here are our recipes for both. We are also starting experimenting with sloe gin see this post for details
Tips and tricks:
- 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 gin is drunk, you can pour medium sherry on the fruit and start all over again! The latter is devilish and drinkable within three months. We have a recipe for this in our wine and gin section.
- Keep your fruit gin away from the light as this will maintain the colour. Unless it is in a dark green or brown bottle. Wrapping it in brown parcel paper will keep out the light.
- Make notes on a label of your fruit gin/vodka /sugar ratio and stick it onto the bottle(s) so that you have a record, if you make a particularly good batch. We note our responses as the grog matures. Yucky after sixth months can be to die for in a year (you will probably not remember without notes). Notes seem boring when you are making the grog but they are so worthwhile when you start again the next year. It won’t be long before you will get a feel of what works well for your taste (and the notes will come into their own).
- Adding almond essence to sloe gin lifts it from good to great. I haven’t tried this with the damson gin but return in a years’ time for our review.
- Don’t kill the liqueur with too much sugar at the start. Use the amount above to start your sloe or damson gin and then every couple of months take a tiny sip. At this time add more sugar if it is too sharp for your taste.
- Gin v Vodka? Vodka can be used as the spirit for these recipes. Although I’m a vodka drinker, we tend to stick to a gin base for our fruit liqueurs.
- A good damson gin can be made from ordinary damsons available in the shops. As they are bigger you would need to put them into a larger Le Parfait jar (I’d use a 2 litre size).
- People have been picking sloes from September 1st around here. Some people say that you shouldn’t pick sloes until after the first frost. This can be circumvented by putting your sloes in the freezer overnight. We don’t bother with either method and always have great results.
- This year we have made up a number of small (1lb honey jars) of sloe gin to give as Christmas presents.
| Wild Damson Gin and sloe gin Recipes |
Recipe Type: Liqueurs
Prep time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Ingredients
- Wild damson gin:
- 1lb/454gm of washed wild damsons
- 6 ozs/168gm of white granulated sugar
- 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
- Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle with stopper/cork
- Sloe Gin:
- 1lb/454gm of washed sloes
- 4 ozs/112gm of white granulated sugar
- 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
- Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle
- 1-2 drops of almond essence
Instructions
- Wild damson gin:
- Wash damsons well and discard any bad or bruised fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place damsons in either a large
- Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre bottle.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and 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). If you are planning to drink this after 3 months, have a nip afetr a month, and top up with sugar to taste.
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We strain and bottle after a year. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur, as we found to our cost one year.
- Sloe gin:
- Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.
- Add the almond essence.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and 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 grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We strain and bottle after a year.
Leave a reply
This is a very simple nice recipe, Thanks.
Having made an extremely successful batch of rasberry vodka, I would like to try cherry gin this year. Has anyone made this? If so, could I have the recipe please.
Hi Elizabeth
I’ve got a recipe here https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/easy-morello-gin-recipe-fruit-liqueurs-7378
Many thanks Paul S, I’ll avoid the water.
I’ve had some good results with blackberry gin and rhubarb gin this year; blackberry brandy and sloe port were also particularly good; just treat the ingredients as sloe gin and enjoy. Local supermarket budget brands are perfectly ok.
I use 4 pint milk cartons for all my mixes; the wide neck is ideal for larger fruit and if you’re in the mood, a 6 pint carton will take 2 bottles of gin with plenty of space for 2 – 3 lbs of fruit.
Cheers
Honey usually has a water content of approaching 20%.
I find that covering the sloes in the sugar and leaving a short while brings out a lot of juice from the sloes, as well as acting as a sweetener. I presume honey would not do this.
The whisky recipe sounds intersting.
Cheers
Hi All, Has anyone tried using honey instead of sugar in their sloe gin? I’m still experimenting and wondered what quantity of honey equates to 4oz of sugar.
If anyone enjoys whiskey, try mixing a bottle with a jar of stem ginger, including the syrup. Treat it as sloe gin. Cheers.
Being a first timer,I was a bit apprehensive initially as to the sugar/sloe/gin ratio having been advised by the locals that it was 1lb/1 lb fruit/ 1 pint gin, but having bottled it last week and tasted it, I’m convinced. Great colour, taste and morish factor. Thank you.
Have just bottled up Sloe gin for this year, looking extremely good as well as tasting good. I know, I know, you’re meant to leave it for a year, fortunately there is a bottle that didn’t quite get filled, so that won’t be going in the store!!! Just need to make the labels and then I’ll be bottling up the plum vodka! Having run out of bottles have made a large note to save all kinds of good looking glass bottles throughout year. The shed is fast becoming a jam jar and bottle store, where am I going to do my weaving and all the other stuff that I do? I’ll have to build an extension or get a bigger shed, happy days…..Health, happiness and peace for Christmas and 2012 to all you lovely people. I just love this website.
I have drained off the gin & have the bottles nested safely in a dark cupboard. I will strain them through a muslin bag again before the end of the month, then store till next Christmas. For now, I happen to have one bottle only two-thirds full- this won’t make it to the end of the month 😛
As for the sloes- I made butter flapjacks & put the flesh from some of the sloes into it to make ‘sloe-jacks’… it took over two hours to get the stones out though, so probably won’t be doing that again!
The rest of the sloes will be left to rot in order to get the stones out- I’ve heard you can make aromatic pillows, much like a wheat bag, out of them 🙂
Well done Barbara.
I like your approach to extracting the greatest possible quantity of the precious liquid. I might give that a try when mine is ready.
If you enjoy the philistine approach, then pamper yourself. Otherwise, the same comments I made in october apply to damsons as to sloes. If you stone them they will really brighten up your mince meat and hence your mince pies – maybe take those to the family Christams as a substitute for the gin.
Alternatively, why not try making a chutney?
We still have huge quantities of windfall apples laying on the ground around here. They are a perfect bulk base. You just need to cut out any bad bits and once boiled with the vinegar are perfectly safe. If you leave it to mature until Easter, you will have something special to celebrate those holidays – its well worth the wait.
Another option with apples is to make a jam or jelly
I’ve just poured the liquid off my first ever attempt at damson gin. The plan was to take it with me for the family Christmas but I’m sorely tempted to ‘accidentally’ forget it – it’s absolutely gorgeous. The damsons are now in a colander with weights pressing down on a dish in an effort to squeeze out more liquid.
Please tell: is there anything nice I can do with the damsons instead of throwing them away – sitting sucking them one at a time seems more than a tad philistine!