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.
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Came across your site looking for a recipe for mirabelle jam while waiting for my apricot jam to boil…didn’t find the recipe, but lots of other good stuff.
Regarding sloe gin, I introduced my (Hungarian) partner’s father to this about 5 years ago. We found sloes in abundance near his home in the south of Hungary. He was sceptical until I cracked the product at age 3 months, then enthusiastic. Little bit less so about all the faffing involved – picking by hand, stabbing the little bighters with a needle. Hungarian ingenuity was required, and duly applied. The process now goes like this: 1) Go out with tractor, trailer and chainsaw. 2) Use the latter to strim off a bunch of branches bearing ample sloes, load into the trailer and take home. 3) Spread a large tarpaulin, dump the sloe branches and beat the bejasus out of them with a stick (I usually get to do this), removing branches and debris to leave the sloes. 4) Dump the sloes, leaves, bits of branch and odd finger fragment (Blackthorn is sharp!) into a large tub, fill up, and skim off the debris. The sloes come out by the kilo….and the pricking is done in the same tub, by hitting them fairly gently with a wire brush, flick of the wrist, next please…
Oh, and the alcoholic content is provided by neither gin nor vodka, but his own plum “palinka” – fruit brandy, distilled at the (official) village still (Hungary is civilised). 54% going in, which I think is about 110 proof. Add 1/2 kilo of local honey to a 5 liter jar half filled with sloes, top up and wait…I figure what comes out is somewhere between 40 and 45%, so 70 to 80 proof. The sloe on top of the plum base tastes very nice, I lie here befuddled to tell you…Actually, adding the sloe turns the palinka from a “knock-it-back” shot to a sipping drink, which is nice.
We have Morello Cherry Brandy and Raspberry liqueur on the go each year, same plum brandy base (a bottle of the Morello between 8 people can go in 30 minutes, and the “waste” cherries make the most lethal pie). This year we are also trying Mulberies, which so far seems promising – great colour and interesting smell, anyway. Tried redcurrants last year -waste of time, much better used in Jelly.
I used your recipes last year to make damson gin and plun gin. They both taste fantastic the damson gin has the most splendid colour and tastes faintly of almond.
I made 3 litres and wish I’d made more……so starting early this with ………….strawberry vodka
Keep up the good work
Hi. All recipes say to prick the sloes with a fork before submerging in gin and sugar. Old folklore here in Ulster say to prick with the sharp thorn of the blackthorn itself. Apparently using a metal fork affects the flavour of the fruit!! personally I use a wooden cocktail stick…just to be on the safe side!!
Well after another bumper pick of sloes this weekend I thought I’d share my recipie. I still have 3lb of sloes in the freezer to play with. It’ scosting me a fortune in Gin so I may sell some to friends etc and see how it goes down.
Gin Bottle
½ lb Sloes
1/2 litre Gin
3oz Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Thyme Honey
Jar One (1.5 ltr Le Parfait jar)
1lb Sloes
¾ qtrs Litre Gin
5oz Sugar
1 Vanilla pod
Jar Two (1.5 ltr Le Parfait jar)
1lb Sloes
¾ qtr Litre Gin
5oz Sugar
If you wanna caht feel free to mail me at philhaddon@sky.com
Saturday just gone I thought I’d try my luck at finding the elusive Sloe. Me and my 2 boys went walking in the fields that I could see lots of Hawthornes. Bingo, mixed amongst them I found a Sloe Bush … with no Sloes on 🙁 a few yards further on BINGO, Sloes, more sloes and even more sloes …. I walked a differant way back and hit the “Motherload” as my boys have coined it. I’m going back this weekend as I only had a hat to fill up with about a pound of Sloes.
2 jars on the go already and already a veruy deep ruby red!
Phil.
Hooray,
at last i managed to find some sloes,i now have two litres of sloe gin and am about to try sloe whisky very shortly!
Annie
You could try Borough Market, or Marylebone Farmer’s Market every Sunday from 10am. It’s possible they will sell you sloes… mind you, it’s been a poor year.
Failing that, make him something like a fig vodka – buy ripe figs, cut in four, cook ’em slowly in a low oven for an hour, cool and add to vodka (whatever bottle you choose, it should be a 1/4 to 1/3 full of fruit). No sugar in this one.
After 3-4 weeks, you’ll have a pale green/yellow liquid, heady with the taste of fig, excellent chilled and served alongside some crumbly blue cheese…
I want to make some sloe gin as one of the presents for my boyfriend this Christmas, based on a ‘scrumping’ theme! Trouble is, I live in London and – being a City girl – I’m afraid I’ll pick something poisonous (even presuming I manage to find some in the first place!). Question is, a) where should I look in London to try to find some or b) is there a farmers market someone knows of where I could (dare I say it??) BUY some?? Thanks
Went to find sloes today and picked 1 that was left on a blackthorn bush! In desperation I’ve turned to blueberries which I have mixed with gin and sugar. Has anyone got any experience of using blueberries?
We have a large stand of wild Damson trees on an old dirt road on our little island in the San Juan archipelago in Washington State, US. They are at peak ripeness right now. We picked almost 3 gallons yesterday, and there are thousands of the little blue-black beauties still clinging in the upper branches. I made jam and fruit leather with them yesterday, but thanks to this lovely site we will continue picking- and ginning!
Cheers!