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
Hi Karen
Yes, I’d like to hear how they taste after a year in the freezer.
Thats a good idea …will do just that.Will let you know if the frozen ones were any good.Thank you
Hi Karen,
I don’t know how long sloes keep in the deep freeze.
The only way to tell if the taste has been adversely affected is to pick a fresh sloe and unfreeze one of your frozen ones. When you taste them you will know immediately if it is worth using the frozen ones this year.
Hi i froze some sloe berries last autumn and forgot about them,will they be ok for sloe gin this year? I am unsure how long they can be kept in the deep freeze.
Hi Deb,
Thanks for leaving the tip about the gin soaked damson crumble. Sounds delicious.
Found this website whilst looking for something else to do with sloes but make gin – what great ideas I have read .. have already made my damson gin and have picked the biggest sloes ever this afternoon!.
Tip for damsons strained out of gin – make a yummy crumble – its the best!
Hi Charlotte,
Thanks for your recipe ideas. I am going to try adding much more sugar than the recipe above, in the interests of science. Sometimes a glass of delicious , thick sloe gin just hits the spot.
Hi I used to make damson and sloe gin 20 or thity years ago to put in my hip flask. A friend of mine used to make raspberry gin which was always my favourite. Thicker damson or sloe gin someone was commenting on was obviously made by adding more sugar. My recipe was bottle of gin, 1lb fruit and 1lb of suger. One year my aunt doubled the already heavy load of sugar and the result was the most amazing sloe liquor. Two glasses and we were on our backs! Fantastic wesite which I shall explore more at a later date.
Hi Kathy,
I am so sorry; I have made a muddle here. Sometimes we add the scented geranium leaves to the apples when we simmer them to make jelly. It would be impossible to remove them before straining and there would be no point.
Sometimes we add the geranium leaves to the juice during the jelly making process and then these leaves have to be removed prior to pouring the jelly into jars as the cooked leaves would look wilty.
You can set a fresh leaf in the jar of jelly when it is half set (in the jar) and this looks very pretty.
Thank you so much for the recipe for apple and elderberry jelly. It sounds delicious.
I am going to try the apple with geranium leaves recipe but can you tell me why you need to remove the leaves before straining through the muslin. I can’t think why that would be necessary and it would be difficult to find them in the pulp.
I’ve just made apple and elderberry jelly which I think is great. 3 quarts (6 pints) elderberries, 5lb windfall/crab apples, cinammon stick, rind of two oranges, ~3 pints water; 1lb granulated sugar to every pint juice. Cut apples up, put in pan with berries (including core,pips and skin of apple). Add rest of ingredients; cook to a pulp stirring occasionally; drip through jelly bag/muslin overnight; measure juice, add sugar (warmed), low heat until sugar dissolved then rapid boil until jelly will set when tested which is between 15 and 25 minutes.