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
Greetings from across the pond!
I love this website, many interesting things to try.
Around here, the only alcohol made at home is done with corn, and is not talked about.
While we do not have blackthorn here, we do have damson.
I was curious, before I try to make damson or raspberry gin, what do y’all use it for?
As they are sweetened, do y’all drink them neat? Or do y’all mix them with tonic, or make a gin fizz, or use them in cocktails(if so, do you use them in place of gin, or as a flavorant when taking into account the extra sugar)?
Or is it used in cooking more?
Also, do y’all add glycerin to the gin, to give it a more silky mouth-feel?
Sorry for the somewhat neophyte questions, but this is really out of my ken, but I would like to learn.
Mike
As a Yorkshireman, the best I have achieved with sloes is to manually stone them. I used the chopped flesh in either mince meat for Christmas mince pies or used them as a base for a chutney. The chutney has proved very popular.
Damsons are softer and fleshier but even then it is almost impossible to extract the juice using a good qulaity press. Best so far has been to keep in airtight bottle till next fruit season. Then mix with fresh fruits to make a superb damson jam or jelly. Being soaked in alcohol they keep well.
Hope this helps
I’ve started making sloe gin & damson vodka this year. Like many other “producers” I’m loathe to simply discard the spirit laden fruit.
I’ve made a crumble with one batch but the vodka flavour was quite overwhelming.
Can anyone suggest a good way to extract the juice from the steeped fruit that doesn’t involve the purchase of any expensive fruit press?
Thanks
Mike
Following on from the success of my sloe gin, i have used the sloes (from the sloe gin) and added 1 litre of vodka and 1/2 lb of sugar. I hope to make a vodka liquer. Has anybody reused the sloes to do this and what was the success?
Paul J
Interesting. I do not use the almond essence either in sloe or gamson gin. I have never thought it added any improvement to the taste. I find that as damsons have larger stones and the fruit is softer, the gin seems to pick up a slight almond taste. This is not particularly to my taste.
In future the sloes will go in the gin and the damsons in the jam. Having said that, I have a demijohn of gin soaked damsons. Now tht could make good jam?
SLOE GIN SUCCESS
I made some sloe gin last November from a crop of sloe’s that were simply growing in the hedgerow. Followed the instructions for sloe gin, except i did not put in the almond essence. Waited until the end of February to bottle and try.
The result was amazing………..fantastic colour, instant cherry flavour followed by almond taste. This year i need to make a lot more!!!
I have just decanted my slow gin and damson gin. This is what I do.
Take a large jar (I use 1 gallon demijohns)and insert a funnel that sits comfortably into the neck. Place a piece of clean j-cloth into the funnel and then gently pour the liquid into this.
However hard you try, some sloes invariably escape from the jar with the liquid but these are caught in the j-cloth filter.
After a while the piece of j-cloth tends to get clogged up with debris and sloes. I empty any loose sloes into a bowl and then squeeze the j-cloth over the funnel before putting in a new j-cloth filter. It is a little messy but you can have 10 mins joy licking your fingers at the end. The other advatage is that the gin comes through reasonably clear. You can then bottle it.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
I wonder if you could advise on decanting the sloe gin. I made it in mid-September so I am going to decant one of the Le Parfait jars now into bottles and see how it is.
I have never done this before so it’s all new to me. I just don’t know how to go about it as it could be terribly messy I fear and I don’t want to spill and loose any of the grog! Should I pour the liquid into jugs?
Any advice would be useful. It is the 3 litre Le Parfait jars I have used.
Hi John
I reckon that a jug would be best and ideally a funnel!
Hi, many thanks for a great site, letting you know that we are now picking Damsons down under(South Australia) and it’s a bumper harvest this year. looking forward to trying many of the ideas here.
This year we tried something new with the redundant sloes. We stoned them and made a gin soaked sloe chutney. Opinion from recipients is that it is good. 2½ lbs of sloes produces about 1lb of stoned fruit and takes a good hour so not a quick fix. Some added to this years mince meat for mince pies also proved popular. Adds a bit of “je ne sais quoi”.