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 have recently acquired a huge bag of damsons ( i think) but they are quite small, about twice the size of a grape and they are yellow. Are these OK to make the gin or vodka with? If so what would you recommend?
I agree with Aunty Ruth and put the sugar in the demijohn after the sloes. I then shake them up well and the sugar starts to draw the juice out of the fruit. I will leave an hour or two, giving occasional shakes by which time the sugar has turned to a red syrup withe the sloe juice. I then add the gin and “get the big shakes” to dissolve the sugar. During the first month it seems the more shakes the better. After all that shaking I rest my arms and do nothing but drink some of last years brew. The aching arms are then more tolerable.
Hi Paul S
Brilliant!
Hi folks
in answer to Katrinas query, sloes are the fruit of blackthorn – the leaves are quite small and branches & twigs tend to be fairly brittle with bigish thorns (though not that many & don’t let it put you off – the sloe gin is well worth the odd scratch!)They’re quite easy to recognise, but can be tricky to spot… especially if like round mine someones got there first like in previous years. One easy (but longer term) way I use to spot locations of bushes is look out for clouds of white blossom in the hedgerows in early spring that look like isolated snowstorms in the hedge & keep going back through the year to see if they’ve set fruit.
Re. Mark’s query, I really don’t think it matters what order you put sloes, gin & sugar in… I tend to put gin last but simply to swill the sugar from the funnel & side of the jar I’ve used (have taken to using a demijohn if I can get enough sloes)
Roll on winter when it’s ready!
Ruth
Hi could you please tell me DO i have to add the Gin at the start of the process?
I have read a few recipes from different websites and they all seem to have slightly different instructions!!!
Regards
Mark
Yes, they have a sizeable stone in the middle. They are in effect like a small round hard plum with stone. The flesh around the stone is also fairly hard with a toughish skin.
Have a look at the following for pictures.
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=sloes&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=dVyPTJfRBozF4ga5zaz1DQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQsAQwAw&biw=787&bih=748
do sloes have stones? I am having a real nightmare identifying a sloe bush and obviously don’t want to pick the wrong berry and poison someone!!!!
R- I meant to say “almost” the size of grapes! They were much bigger and juicier than they normally are, but not quite that big! Can you make a pie with elderberries? I thought they’d be too sour – do you mix them in with other fruit?
Kirsten – I’m not a newbie, but I still get mixed up between purple plums, purple bullaces and damsons.
I always thought damsons were sloe-like in colour, however my friend swears hers is a damson tree and yet the very ripest fruits are still only reddish purple and don’t have any ‘bloom’.
I was recently directed to another alleged damson tree with fruits so diverse in colour and size that had I not known better, I would have said they’d orinated from several different plants. Some were small, green, rounded and sunblushed liked certain bullace varieties – others were large, oval and the deepest purple.
And damsons can be so small as to be mistaken for sloes apparently, and as it is, I found a sloe yesterday that was the diameter of one of my (probable) bullaces on a shrub that in genral, had much larger than average-sized fruits…
…and so on and so forth.
Actually, I think hawthorn is one of the easier species to recognise because the bush itself is so distinctive, but I’m still working on the others. Have recently bought a couple of forager books, mainly because I wish to start learning more about wild savoury plants, but I’m hoping that a bit of cross-referencing will help me clarify some of my drupe issues! It’s such a massive, albeit fascinating learning curve. Isn’t that one of the best things about foraging? Making new discoveries, I mean.
Becky – you had elderberries the size of grapes? Are you sure that’s what they were? I’ve never seen an elderberry bigger than maybe 0.5cm, and I’ve picked pounds and pounds in my time.
Also, I never did get on with the fork method myself – too many twigs if you’re making a pie. I roll them downwards between my thumb and four fingers held together. Seems to take a longer at first, but as it’s more like a twisting action than a yank, you get far fewer stalks so overall it’s less finickety and time-consuming. Horses for courses though I guess, as with all things. 🙂
Find of the week – black rosehips! Does anyone know about these? I’ve never had any before, but they look incredible. I believe the species is called Burnet, and I later found a schnapps site that makes positive reference to them in relation to liqueuer-making. My finger were as stained as I’ve ever seen them after topping and tailing – can’t wait to see what they do to a clear spirit.
i have purchased the book and with the confirmation of another fruit picker in the area they are damsons! 6 trees in 1 hedgerow and 3 young ones about 2ft tall!!!
Hi Tom
Lucky you – I’m so envious!
There weren’t an awful lot, but I am quite squeamish about bugs! Especially earwigs :/ I think I did quite well at getting out all the bits of stalk and spider, so hopefully it should be ok! I’m so impatient though, I want to try it now!