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
Hi Liz,
Use three or four scented geranium leaves to 1 kilo of apples. Cook them with the apples and remove them before straining through muslin.
I an assuming that your leaves are between 2 to 3 inches across.
What a brilliant site!
I’d really like to try making apple jelly with scented geranium leaves. What sort of quantity of leaves do you use & at which stage do you add them?
Hi Karen,
I’d be really interested to hear how the sloe vodka works out. Lucky you with all those damsons. We are drinking a 2005 wild damson gin at the moment and it’s pretty good. Glad you are enjoying the site.
Hi Charles,
I’d love to hear how you get on with your sloe gin. Also I™d be interested in taking a peek at your damson gin recipe.
Not a good damson year around here. I may have to drive down to my friends garden in Essex – her garden is heaving with them.
Fantastic Web site!
Made some fantastic damson gin last year, but strangely enough our damsons (which are wild but growing in the garden) only come in every other year, so this year we have been encouraged by the lack of damsons to seek out a good source of sloes which we harvested today and will let you know how we get on!
Hi there
I agree about the bumper damson season, I went to pick my sisters damsons yesterday and ended with far more than I intended to pick so I now have enough for wine, gin making and jam.
I made sloe gin last year but didn’t like it much so will try sloe vodka this year so it would be good to compare notes after Christmas.
Brill website – keep up the good work
Hi Andy,
We are going to experiment with sloes this year and will be posting about the project this weekend.
I’d love to hear how the blueberry and sloe gin turns out.
Pleased that you are enjoying the site.
Hi,super web site!
We have an abundance of wild damsons in our hedgerows and i’ll be picking some today following your recipes.
I’ve also found some sloes and was planning to leave them until after the first frost but after reading your advice, they will be harvested today also!
Last year a shooting friend made sloe and blueberry gin which was to die for, so i shall experiment with a version of this too. I’ll let you know the results if i’m still able to stand!!!
Hi Jane,
Lovely to meet someone who has planted an orchard (albeit the introduction was on line). Glad there was a good harvest this year. Our apple jelly is good (swank) This year I am trying it with herbs and the leaves of scented geraniums.
Thanks for the tip about quince vodka. Glad that you agree about leaving blackberry vodka too long.
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Glenn,
I think diminutive fruit are down to the weather. Not enough sun this year. I have been out foraging in my secret hunting grounds and been really disappointed too.
hi there been picking damsons today to make damson gin,has enyone else found that this year they are rather small,as have been the plums i have had this year.there has also been no wild cherrys this year anyone got any idea why cheers glenn.
What a fantastic site! Planted an orchard of mixed fruit trees the year before last and have this year had a bumper crop of plums of all sorts (best ones were the Early Rivers). Today I’ve picked 5lbs of Shropshire Prune Damsons and am going to make damson gin tomorrow (already got some wild damson vodka on the go). All that’s left in the orchard is shed loads of apples from existing trees (any offers on what do with buckets of Bramleys?) and a couple of quinces from the new trees. A word of warning – step away from the idea of quince vodka – tried it last year with a friend’s quinces and it was awful. Agree about blackberry vodka too – left it too long last year and it was like drinking a tree. Thanks again.