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
Hello. I am new to the site and also to making fruit gins/vodkas. I have just collected quite a lot of damsons from a relative’s tree and have had a go at making Damson Vodka. I decided to try the method of feezing the damsons and then adding them so that the skins split – however only a couple seem to have split! Any advice as to whether this will still work or how I can save the vodka would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Celeste
You don’t need to freeze the damsons at all! So your damson gin will be fine 🙂
There can’t have been that many bugs, surely! Anyway, you sieve them out by straining them through a clean handkerchief so similar so they can’t do that much harm! The fork thing works best if the berries are freshly picked, so quite firm, or frozen – if they are a bit soft, they just squelch up against the prongs! Bits of stalk don’t matter – like the bugs, you strain them all out anyway.
Oh you tell me now! Haha I developed a quickish method as I went on, the fear of ending up covered in bugs did slow me down significantly though!
Hi Becky – for the uninitiated, the quickest way to de-berry an elderberry stem is with a fork – dead quick and easy – but you probably know that already. Sure it will taste devine even with the odd bug!! Cheers
Well I’ve just bottled my first attempt at elderberry vodka and gin! What a finicky job, I hope it’s worth it! We picked far too many berries, some of them the size of grapes! De-stemmin the berries was a right task, and my boyfriend had the unenviable task of scooping spiders and bugs out of the sink 🙂 hope it tastes good after all that effort!!
Well, after scouring my hedgerows and interrogating locals I finally found hedgerows bearing sloes and yesterday we gathered 4 – yes 4 – kgs of fruit!
However, having now washed and inspected it I think I’ve committed the cardinal sin of the newbie-gatherer having in fact an assorted mix of sloes, wild damsons, and a few bullaces thrown in!
I’m committed to bottling them today… think making a hybrid sloe/damson gin will make a difference???
Hi Kirsten
Yes it will. Damson gin is very different from sloe gin. Can’t you sepearte them?
Last week i collected 9 lbs of something similar. I know them as bullaces. They are like an extra large sloe and slightly sweeter. Apparently they are a stage in the development of sloes to plums. When out walking I usually carry a Collins pocket gem book called “Food for Free” by Richard Mabey. It lists the edible wild plants and fruits and has separate sections for fungi/mushrooms and marine life. It gives descriptions and picture of the items and short description of what they are used for and how to use them. Amazon price under £3.00 inc postage if anyone interested. Having said that I still find the odd plant not mentioned, like some small golden yellow plums that I think are called marybells or like.
I’m in Germany at the moment where my mother-in-law has a plum tree, the fruit of which is known here as Zwetschke. These to me are damsons, but the fruit is about 5cm long. However, while out walking the dog this afternoon I spotted what looked like teeny tiny damsons in the hedgerows. They were the same colour, etc. but much smaller; maybe only 1 – 1.5cm in length. Is it these that I should be using for damson gin? I did try one and it was very tart indeed.
Hi Susan
The hedgerow ones are wild damsons, I think. Perfect for damson gin or vodka.
hi,
i have come across what i think is damsons? they are about 1 – 2.5 cm in with and the insides are yellow like a plum. they taste a bit like a plum but the odd some has a similar taste to a sloe? are they sloes or damsons? the trees i picked them from are about 12ft tall and the fruit are a dark purple colour. any help appriciated.
cheers
Hi Tom
Wild damsons are very tart indeed. It’s difficult to say what they are without a photo. It’s a really good idea to invest in a book – I recommend Hedgerow by John Wright – you can read about it here https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/hedgerow-by-john-wright-%e2%80%93-river-cottage-handbook-no-7-review-6914
Hi Matt and fn, thanks for your replies.
I too assumed that any spoiling was largely due to the presence of air. Some of the fruits seem to bob up at the surface a lot when I’m agitating the bottle, but I’m right at the very limit in terms of the gin level, so I can’t really do anything about that. Am trying not to worry, but they’re definitely browner today than they were yesterday, with as much dark colour as yellow now. Closer inspection of the [red-purple) plum gin shoes that some of these have extensive bruising now too, though not quite as much. I’m quite content to leave them as they are if you think they’ll be OK – I just don’t want to poison anyone at a later date! I’ve been very methodical and done a lot of research but bottom line, this is the first autumn I have used my loot for booze so am at the mercy of inexperience if not enthusiasm. 🙂