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
Like many of your contributors I’ve had success with sloes using both gin and vodka but I didn’t see any mention of kea plums these are just as good.
I’ve just been given 1200gms of redcurrants with a lot more available if I want them. I don’t fancy redcurrant jelly…has anyone sucessfully ginned them?
I think I discovered two damson trees growing along a farm fence near my home. The fruit is currently about an inch long, oval, not near ripe, still a pale green. The leaf of the tree/bush looks a bit like a cherry tree leave, very small sawtooth edges and is about 3″ long and 1.5″ wide. From this can anyone tell me if this sounds like a damson? A neighbor had a bush when I was a kid but that’s the only time I’ve seen one growing.
Whilst “doing” the loathed ironing I watched Ready Steady Cook this week and a guest produced sloe jelly! In my quest for recipes came across this website – excellent. whilst dog walking this morning I picked a bag of blackberries and during my wanderings walked by all the renowned good cropping sloe bushes – there were no sloes at all NOR do our wild damson trees have any damsons. Bumper crop 2007 and bumper bumper crop of everything in 2006. Has anyone else noticed this? My spirits will have to be blackberried.
Hello Helen
Sloe whisky and blackberry brandy sound delicious.
Hope that the strawberry vodka is successful.
Lucky you, finding a good supply of sloes!
Thanks for leaving a comment it’s always good to hear about forays into the world of fruit liqueurs.
Fab site !
I’ve successfully made sloe gin previously & had more sloes than gin so made a batch of sloe whisky instead which was amazing !
Last year I had a go at Blackberry Brandy – fantastic for a ‘kir royale/ champagne cocktail’ style drink. Yum.
Just been to my local co-op & strawberries were reduced to only 50p a punnet so snapped up the entire 6 punnets. I was originally thinking strawberry jam, but realising how easy the blackberry brandy was, I’m going to have a go at Strawberry vodka instead, along the lines of the raspberry gin. (I even live about a mile from the Notts Ikea so I’m off there tomorrow for jars too !)
Can’t wait for autumn, last year, after spending years trying to hunt down local sloes, I discovered that the hedges around our local playing fields are virtually ALL sloe – with seemingly no-one else out gathering !
I have been told to look at this site and i am so excited , its wonderful , i will be back after i raid the cocktail cabinet Cheers Elizabeth
Hi Dori
I haven’t tried infusing gin with elderflowers. It seems a promising idea and I might give it a go.
I make elderflower cordial, https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=340 which is excellent and delicious elderflower and lime jellies https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=328
I have read many of the posts on your site but time wasn’t on my side so apologies if I missed any reference to what I am about to ask now.
I notice that some of you have tried Elderberry Gin it sounds great however what about the Elderflowers themselves. Elderflower Champagne is wonderful and so easy to make – I am wondering if anyone has tried infusing the flowers with Gin? Or anything else for that matter!!
Hi Ella
You caught me at a busy weekend, sorry not have got back to you immediately!
Great to hear that you are getting married. What a wonderful idea to use mini fruit gin bottles as place holders.
I think that raspberry gin/vodka is the best fruit liqueur that we make https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=53. Much better than damson or sloe and tastes sublime. You can get raspberries all year round. So I’d go for that. Yes you do have the air miles question and the fact that they are not just plucked from the canes but you don’t have time on your side. Most UK soft fruits are ready late summer and then it will be too late.
Fruit gins need at least three months to mature before they are drinkable. Raspberry gin is perfect within six months.
Ding! I’ve suddenly though of Rhubarb gin/vodka. Apparently this is amazing. Rhubarb’s available now from UK suppliers. We don’t have a recipe but there must be one out there somewhere. Don’t leave the fruit in the liquor for longer than 3 months.
I do hope that this helps you!
What a brill site, and really great quality comments!
I wonder if anyone can help me. I’m getting married this September and would really like to give miniature bottles of home-made liqueur to guests as favours (will prob use as name places with guests’ names on the label, or something of the sort!) I’ve got a big bottle of damson vodka brewing from last September, but I think the quantity is only going to be enough for the around half the number of guests. Could anyone suggest a fairly risk-free recipe that i could put together now and which would be ready to drink in 6 months’ time? My real problem is choosing what fruit to use given that it’s all out of season. My first idea to have damson vodka for the boys and raspberry gin for the girls…does anyone have any other suggestions, and also any tips on how i could keep the quality good when fruits are out of season and the maturing time is fairly short….? Many thanks for your help & congratulations again on such a lovely website. Ella