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
I also fell foul of the almond essence diluted in sunflower oil last year. I did not even think to check – just assumed that all almond essence was alcohol. I managed to absorb most of it from the top of the jar by gently floating a piece of kitchen roll on the top. All the globules have gone now.
I’m looking forward to sloe season again, just not the gin bill! Last year’s sloe gin was pretty good but not as good as previous years. I wonder whether my sloes were a bit under-ripe.
My parents found some bullaces while out walking and have tried to make bullace gin. Has anyone ever made it?
louise i can recommend putting your fruit in a paper bag or lidded box with a ripe banana (with the brown spots on) as they give off a chemical that actually ripens fruit quicker (be careful can also send them over if left too long). this method works wonderfully on toms, pears etc etc.
good luck hope this was of some help….
hi,
just thought i would let everyone know that putting 1 chilli in you sloe gin can give it an extra bit of kick!
tom
Hi, this is our first year of making Sloe Gin, we make Christmas food hampers for our families, last year we made a lemon vodka for them, but this year we want to make Sloe Gin. We walked around our local country park this evening and found loads of Sloes, we ended up picking 1750g of them, we new it was too early but some looked very dark in colour and quite soft, it was only when we got home and looked at them in the light we realise that over half of them are greeny purple in colour and very hard. Can anyone suggest anyway of ripening them? We knew we shouldn’t of picked them but we were so excited when we saw them, we’ve spent the last month looking at various website on how to make sloe gin.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Louise
In the olden days most people picked sloes after the first frosts. Nowadays peopke bung them in the freezer overnight but picking usually takes place September/October. You could try ripening the sloes on a sunny windowsill.
Hi Fiona, yes, skimming the oil globules removed the problem, and adding the alcohol-based almond extract worked fine. It tastes great, I had a glass or two last night just to check 😉 I’ll be keeping a couple of half litre bottles to mature and see how it measures up in a couple of years.
First comment to Nickwill please – did skimming off the oil globules and adding more of the expensive almond extract solve the problem? How did it taste?
And second to Paul S re the chutney enquiry. I should have specified, my mother-in-law doesn’t use sloes as she can’t be faffed with removing the stones. She uses blackcurrants (from the blackcurrant gin and brandy) and blackberries (from the blackberry gin). Both excellent, blackcurrants slightly better but the blackberry seeds add a nice crunch. Neither I nor she has a recipe and it’s slightly different each time she does it but basically I know she puts onions and sultanas in them both. Any basic chutney receipe should help – just add the fruit instead of whatever! Just have a go is my advice – can’t go wrong.
Getting my Fionas mixed up, I think! Sorry…
I’ll try the sherry, but am equally tempted by the idea of chutney and/or mincemeat. Mrs P does a mean mince pie, made like a swiss roll, and we slice bits off. It’s horribly good.
WRT almonds, in the absence of essence, could not plain nuts be chopped and added to the sloes? It’s all going to be filtered anyway, and you should get the flavour, I imagine.
Thank you Matt.
This is definitely one to try when the plums ripen.
I hope all goes well on the day next year.
SORBET RECIPE: Jamie Oliver Quick Plum and Sloe Gin Sorbet
1kg Plums or or other fruit
120g Caster Sugar
50ml Sloe Gin (plus extra to serve with)
Zest of 1 orange (optional, but really makes this amazing)
1. Cut plums in half and remove stones. Place in freezer for 2 hours, or until hard. Also place serving dish in freezer until cold.
2. Remove plums from freezer and wait 5-10 mins. Put all ingredients in food processer and blend until you have a puree.
3. Put mixture into serving dish. Serve immediately or place in freezer until needed.
4. Serve with a swig of sloe gin oer the top if you like.
If you like this, try making Strawberry and Champayne sorbet, or redwine and raspberry. I went sorbet made after this and use the frozen bags of fruit to make Strawberry and Summerfruits Sorbet. The Plum and Sloe Gin Sorbet was by far the best. Thanks Jamie!
As for the Sloe Choc Liqurs, I am not convinced. I tried one of the old Ginned Sloes, and it tasted horrible. I feel that it would take more than a cover of chocolate to turn this into a taste sensation.
I hit the problem with almond oil last year, you’re quite correct Fiona, you have to use the more expensive alcohol based almond extract otherwise the oil that the cheaper based product is formulated from will float on the top of the gin and not mix.
I resorted to skimming the floating oil off my gin before adding some alcohol based extract afterwards rather than risking the oil turning rancid.