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
Help! Is there any way I can rescue some damson gin I made last year. I used a friend’s recipe, but it’s turned out far too sweet. I thought about straining it & adding more damsons this year, but I haven’t been able to get hold of any. Can I add a different kind of fruit?
I don’t like the thought of pouring it down the drain after waiting patiently for a year.
Any ideas??
More gin will do it. I found that a number of recipes call for too much sugar. Diluting with gin [strange idea I agree] has more impact on sugar levels than it does on the flavour of damson.
I buy gin from Aldi or Lidl.
Colin, thanks for your suggestion. I will definitely give it a try. Should I add the extra gin to the damson mixture (if so, how long should I leave it before straining) or should I add it to taste when serving (like diluting cordial)?
Thanks again
Easy. Add sloes, they’ll reduce the sweetness considerably. First strain the liqueur. Then add a good handful of sloes per bottle, pricking each one, and shake regularly. Leave it (again, patience is required) for about three months.
Remember, sugar can always be added, but it can’t be taken out. Good luck!
When I had a similar problem (most recipes seem way too sweet), I left the damson gin and made a second batch with too little sugar. Then blended them: it seemed to work. If diluting with gin, I’d add it before bottling – it’s too much faffing around otherwise.
Thanks to Peter. Even better suggestion and like Peter I find some damson gin recipes too sweet. If you got some fresh damsons make a low-sugar syrup and and adjust gin mix accordingly. I store spare syrup in sealed jars just like jam. As it’s bottled at about 102C it keeps fine. Try it with yoghurt or in home-made ice cream.
I used to make damson gin and brandy with the washed fruit steeped in the alcohol etc. It was quite a chore where the container had to be regularly turned the pulp separated and the liquor finally bottled. A much simpler [and no different I’ve found] is to make a damson syrup.
It’s the same recipe as for damson jelly you just need to stop short of the set point [I stop at 102 C]. I use less sugar than than recipes call for because I don’t like cloyingly sweet drinks. I convert 3 x750ml bottles of spirit into 4 x 750ml bottles of liquor which means each bottle has 25% syrup added. I find the that the ‘brew’ is stable and there is no waste. You will however get a slight haze because the alcohol will knock the natural pectin out of solution.
A couple of years ago we had some gin left over,so made “morello cherry gin” using sloe gin recipe,left it a year,it was fab,tasted like alcoholic marzipan!
I would disagree with John O about the effects of freezing, it does far more than just splits the skins. This my wife and I discovered over 30 years ago one time when we picked the sloes, but had no time to prick and bottle them straight away. When we thawed them out, they were all mushy so we put them into the gin immediately and it made the best sloe gin we had ever had. I believe the juice pours out into the gin very quickly because the freezing expands the water/juice inside the fruit so that all the cell walls are torn. So, when it is thawed all the juice comes out easily, as when Helen Hall microwaved her sloes to get a similar effect. The only difference is that the freezing splits the skin as well, so no nicking is required!
This year I have tried an experiment based on observations from baking. If a lemon is micrivaved for 30 secs before squeezing for juice, far more juice is produced. But the skin needs to be cut first.
So I cut a nick in the sloes and microwaved them, added gin, and the colour is pouring out, much faster than my neighbour who is running the control.
Presumably it is the juice that gives the drink it’s flavour … or is it the skin?
try it and then publish the result, there’s probably quite a few of us interested in the result
Freezing the sloes is only to split the skins, prick with a fork and you’re away !
It’s a slow or sloe(sorry) process but all part of the fun in my opinion.
Andy J, that would be grape and grain, and after 50 years of ignoring the old adage(off and on), it remains as true today as ever!
This has been a really interesting thread to read. I’ve decided to have a go at making some sloe gin. I found some sloes locally today and got chatting to another local who makes sloe gin every year. I’ve washed my sloes, dried them and now they’re bagged up in the freezer (mock frost). Now I need to buy a 2 litre kilner jar or similar …. I’m not sure which sugar to use, white or caster sugar? Someone mentioned they’d bought their Gin from Aldi and had good results.
I use Aldi gin. You want a drinkable gin (ie, not rubbish), but it’s silly to waste money on something that could be better used in a Martini! Aldi gin is pretty good, and relatively cheap.
Max.
probably a bit late with an answer,doesn’t seem to matter whether castor or granulated. ikea do a good range of both kilner jars and bottles at good prices.i was told that the cheaper the gin the better the product but didn’t taste any different to me. i tried using sour cherries instead of sloes. very nice result.
hope this helps and good drinking
Has anybody tried making sloe gin but using red grapes instead of sloes?
Have not tried grapes, but have made a batch of raspberry gin and a blackberry gin this year.