Two recipes: Wild Damson Gin and Sloe Gin recipes
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 713 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 Ali,
I am delighted that you are enjoying the site.
I’m going to try the tipsy sloes with cider (hopefully our own).
Thank you so much for the information about quince vodka! Just sitting beside a large bowl of quinces and I was wondering about their future. A clutch are now earmarked for quince vodka.
What a great site! Fab tip about the ginned sloes with cider – will definitely try that with our sloes. We enjoy our sloe gin made into sloe gin martinis (you can only drink 1 in a evening).
Really posting to add that quince vodka is a fabulous thing (to disagree with other comments above). We use a recipe from Jane Grigson & the trick is to leave it to mature after bottling for at least a year. The flavour becomes honeyed with a hint of vanilla – the colour also changes from something a bit to close to urine sample to a marvellous amber. It really is fantastic stuff.
Hi Sam,
It’s worth looking in Asda/Tesco etc at this time of year as they often have jars on offer. Also charity shops. We made a big investment in Le Parfait jars a few years ago and they have been a boon. Used over and over again.
I used to use the cheapest gin and have now switched to middle of the range own brand gin. It tastes better to me. It’s worth looking out for offers on these too.
i am having to be restrained by my husband! since finding your website i am champing at the bit to make many various recipes! the most interesting of which ( apart from all the gin related ones!) are the apple,date and onion chutney and the belgian pears. thats the one i REALLY want to do, but alas, no jars!
back to the sloes. we used asda gin last year and this, has anyone experimented with other brands? it’s reasonably priced and not too bad in taste, and the bottles are a good size and shape too!
off tomorrow to pick more sloes from a friends field, as we’ve picked the ones from our garden!
happy gin making!!!(hic)
Hi Sam,
Great to hear how your sloe gin and vodka compared. The raspberry gin is to die for and the lemon is worth the wait.
Before Danny lived here I found a five year old bottle of lemon gin in the larder. It had dropped behind a redundant machine. It was exquisite. Five years in the making, its days were numbered.
we are in our second year of sloe gin and sloe vodka making. last year we made two batches of sloe gin ( i must have posted in another section!)and one batch of vodka. the vodka is very smooth and quite potent. we left the sloes in for about 6months. the second batch of sloe gin has nearly all gone (boo) and was divine, again, left for about 6months. we have just made some lemon gin and raspbery gin, now the long wait begins…….
ps, fantastic website!!!!
Hi Douglas,
Thanks so much for your cider recipe and tips. Great that your father has a “cider house”!
Thanks for your ideas on using ginned damsons and sloes. Brilliant.
CIDER- I’ve been making it since 8 yo! All you need is apples- crush/pass through traditional “scratcher”, press, ferment, bottle. Natural yeasts on surface of fruit start it all off. Ensure good cleanliness and bottle carefully to avoid too much sediment. I use a hydrometer but my father never has- leaves it fermenting slowly outside in cider house until Feb!! Be very selective/clean on bottle choice- reject anything with “fousty” smell as you’ll never clean it. If making perry no need to crush fruit, but leave to mature for 1 yr- intestinal effects!
LEFT OVER GINNED DAMSONS- lovely with greek yogurt!!
LEFT OVER GINNED SLOES- add cheap cider to bottle- drink next day, then add more cider- drink next week!! Gets most of alcohol out and is lovely.
Hi Muriel,
Sloes are round, even big ones. Your fruit could be wild damsons like the ones in the bowl in the photo above. They are spherical and the size of a small olive or grape.
If you go to the contact us page you can email me for my email address and send me a photo of the fruit if you have one. If I don’t know, I can put the photo on the site as there is bound to be someone who would know out there.
I went out looking for sloes today as we have just had our first frosts, I thought I had waited too long as the birds seem to have taken the ones I had my eye on. However, I found just one tree that had huge fruits on about the size of a black grape but spherical. I am sure these must be sloes, they are bitter but edible unlike the ones I tried before the frost. Is there a chance they could be something else?