Friday 27 February 2015

Damson Gin, Jellies and Jams


Lovely Hubby's eyes lit up when he came home from work last week, on the worktop were sat three containers containing his favourite (up to now) homemade concoction ....damsons soaking in sugar and gin.  Well actually the square ex-sweetie jar contains damsons soaking in whisky.  I had one litre sized bottle of gin and an almost full bottle of whisky so I used that too.

We get a lot of bottles of whisky bought us, something to do with my man being Scottish I guess, he also gets given rum, something to do with being in the Royal Navy for so long, but my man is a Port drinker through and through so we try to find alternative uses for the whiskys and rum or pass them on as gifts to people that would appreciate them more than us.  He even sold a very expensive bottle of whisky at a car boot sale once and got enough to be able to buy himself a very drinkable bottle of Port, the man that bought it was thrilled to get a £30 bottle of whiskey for £18.

So his two favourite drinks are Port and Damson Gin, and when he's not drinking the Damson Gin he's busy spreading the Damson Gin Jam on his toast .... we're not alcoholics .... really we're not ... hic!!

We have one bottle remaining of last years batch, it never goes off it just keeps getting better and better ... I wonder how long it will last   ;-)

If you would like the recipes here's the post from last year when I make Damson Gin and Damson Gin Jelly and here's one from way back in 2010 when I made this luscious drink for the first time and turned the soaked fruits into Damson Gin Jam. ... even the damson stones were eaten in this one, waste not want not has always been my motto!!



Sue xx



13 comments:

  1. Sue, I've never heard of using some sort of alcohol in the jam making. Very interesting!

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    1. The gin soaked damsons make the jam taste VERY nice. I honestly thought the taste of the alcohol would go with the heat of boiling the jam, but the luscious flavour remains.

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  2. I am Scottish but I absolutely hate the smell of whisky. However, I love whisky marmalade. I'm not sure how you would make it but it may be a use for the whisky and would make wonderful gifts at Christmas. You could also make Cranachan. a lovely desert using raspberries, cream, honey, whisky and oatmeal - delicious.

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    1. If we have more whisky given us I may give this a go, it would be so simple to do just steep slices of orange in the whisky for a while before making your marmalade in the usual way.

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    2. I made orange and whisky marmalade last autumn - delicious! Even the children like it so the flavour is quite subtle.

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  3. Hi Sue

    Damson and Orange jam is delicious. You can also use a drop of the Damson/sloe gin as a sauce and serve it with Pork which is quite delicious.

    Pattypan

    x

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  4. I wish we had damsons here!!
    Jane x

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    1. Ah ... but you've got big brown bears ... you can't have everything ;-)

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  5. Lovely stuff, we don't get damsons growing wild around here, my sloe gin is nearly ready, we finished all the blackberry vodka, have a new vodka recipe to try next, will share it on my blog.

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  6. I had a look at your recipe. I was wondering why you don't halve the damsons taking away the stones at the beginning, so that you don't have to do that later... is there a reason?

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    1. They are just so much simpler to squeeze out once they have been soaking in the gin for a few months. :-)

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  7. It would work beautifully in a trifle - a little damson gin mixed in with the trifle and some if the damson jam spread across the sponge? .....

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  8. I loathe the taste of Scotch, but love Irish Whiskey, far too much to waste it in jam or marmalade!
    If you go blackberry picking this autumn, you could make a spiced blackberry gin liqueur, it's lovely! Soak blackberries in gin with sugar and a cinnamon stick for about two months, strain, bottle and indulge! Of course there are always a couple of jars of blackberry and gin jam made too!

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