Kate Humble’s Damson Gin

I have a Kilner jar of damson gin in the making in my kitchen at the moment. Once a week I turn it, shaking the dark fruit and the remnants of the sugar from the bottom of the jar, and have a little taste. Just to check it is doing what it should. In another week or so it will be ready to strain and put into bottles. Then, in an exercise of extreme restraint, I have to leave it – hidden away in a cool, dark place – for at least three months, ideally longer, while the full, fruity warmth of the damsons’ flavour develops. Luckily, I have some damson gin I made last year, so I don’t have to wait before I can make what is, I think, the perfect autumn cocktail.

450g (1lb) damsons, washed and pricked with the point of a knife

225g (8oz) sugar

600ml (20fl oz) gin

Makes about 1 litre (1. pints)

Put the damsons in a large Kilner jar. Tip in the sugar and then pour in the gin.

Seal the top and give it a good shake to mix everything up. Over the next week,

shake it every day so the sugar doesn’t just settle at the bottom. And then for the

next 8–10 weeks, tip it upside down once a week, watching the gin take on the

jewel-like colour of the fruit.

Now it is ready to strain and seal into bottles and be left quietly in the dark

for 3 months to do its magic. It is delicious sipped, neat, from a small glass, but

mixed with mulled apple juice it is sensational.

My Favourite Cocktail for Autumn

750ml (13⁄8 pints) freshly pressed apple juice

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1 star anise

1 unwaxed orange

4 shots of Damson Gin

Serves 4

Pour the apple juice into a saucepan and add the spices and 2 thick strips of orange rind removed with a vegetable peeler. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 5 minutes.

Pour a shot of damson gin into 4 mugs or Duralex glasses. Pour over the spiced apple juice, straining it through a tea strainer. Decorate with halved slices of orange.

This recipe is from Home Cooked by Kate Humble