Sloe Gin Jelly

Searching for damsons in my mother's garden I came across a large crop of ripe sloes, so many in fact that I had enough for Sloe Gin (500g of sloes are currently waiting in the freezer for me to buy some cheap gin), and for me to experiment making Sloe Gin Jelly.

My recipe below has 1 shot of gin in.  I'm not sure I can taste it.  But it is a wonderfully tart jelly that would go well in a gravy, with red meat, game, strong cheddar, as much as on toast.  Apparently I have a long wait until my new damson tree fruits, but sloes turn out to be a good alternative.

500g sloes
500ml water
1kg bramley apples
500g sugar
1 shot gin (optional)

Simmer the sloes in the water, covered for about 20 minutes until the fruit is all pulpy.  Roughly chop the apples and add to the sloes, skin, cores and all.  Simmer for another 20 minutes until the apple has disintegrated.

Strain the fruit pulp through a jelly bag overnight.

Measure the collected fruit juice (mine came to 500g/500ml) and add the same weight in sugar to a clean pan.  Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes before checking to see if the jam is set.  Seal in sterilised jars.

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Damson & Apple Jam

Homemade Damson & Apple Jam on homemade bread

Everyone seems to be going on about how many plums they have this year, so I was hopeful that I might be able to forage some long sought after damsons.  But after a couple of years of asking, no such luck and I had to resort to buy some - 5lbs to be exact.

First I have made some Damson & Apple Jam.  I made this 10 years ago from some foraged damsons and a recipe from Marguerite Patten's 500 Recipe series for Jams, Pickles, & Chutneys priced 2/6 published in 1963. To this day I can still taste the fruity taste of this jam and am thrilled to be able to make it again.

1 1/2lb damsons
1lb cooking apples, peeled & quartered
1/2 pint water
2 1/4lb sugar

The recipe says cook all the fruit together, having stated you need 1.5lb of stoned damsons, and then tells you to remove the stones from the stewed fruit mixture.  I thought it would be easier to stew the damsons with the water first, and remove the stones from this smaller volume.  I would do this again but would be even more OCD and count how many damsons to ensure I get all the stones out, as try as I might some seem to have ended up in the jam!

Once you have stewed and stoned the damsons, add the apple and simmer gently with a lid on until the apple has turned to mush.  Add the sugar and boil rapidly (don't worry about any scum - this can either be stirred away with or without a knob of butter at the end of cooking.

This jam reaches setting point quite quickly in my experience so test the jam after 5 minutes.  If it is not ready test again in 5 minutes.

NB If you've never made jam before take a look at this BBC Good Food guide to making jam.  The key things are knowing how to sterilise the jars and lids properly to prevent the jam going mouldy, and knowing when the boiling hot jam has reached setting point.

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