CookEat Recipe
Rose Petal Preserve
Fragrant edible pink rose petals worked with lemon and cooked in syrup.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 200 g fresh fragrant edible pink rose petals, weighed after trimming; 600 g caster sugar, divided into 200 g and 400 g; 600 ml water; Juice of half a lemon.
Step 2
Use fresh rose petals sold for culinary use, grown without ornamental-flower pesticides. Do not use florist flowers or unidentified plants. Remove the pale yellow or white bitter base from every petal, discard calyxes and other flower parts, rinse gently and drain. Weigh 200 g of the trimmed petals.
Step 3
Put the petals in a bowl with 200 g of the sugar and the lemon juice. With clean hands, rub and crush thoroughly until nearly a coarse paste; a mortar may help.
Step 4
Dissolve the remaining 400 g sugar in 600 ml water in a nonreactive saucepan. Add the crushed petal mixture and boil gently for about 20–35 minutes, stirring regularly, until the syrup is thick and slightly sticky when a sample has cooled on a saucer. Stop before it forms threads; never test boiling syrup between your fingers. The petals in this main method retain some chew. No colouring is needed.
Step 5
Transfer to clean small heatproof containers, cool promptly and refrigerate within 2 hours. Keep at 4°C or colder and use within 3 days, or freeze in suitable small containers with expansion space. Thaw in the refrigerator. These historical fruit-and-sugar proportions have not been validated for shelf-stable canning; do not store this preparation at room temperature. Discard the entire container if mould, fermentation or other spoilage appears.
Step 6
For softer petals, first boil the trimmed 200 g petals in the same measured 600 ml water for 5 minutes. Lift out, cool just enough to handle, squeeze them over the saucepan to keep their liquid and pound with the same 200 g sugar and half-lemon juice. Dissolve the remaining 400 g sugar in the reserved petal-boiling water, add the pounded petals and cook to the same slightly sticky, non-threading syrup. Cool, refrigerate or freeze as above; do not add a second 600 ml water or extra sugar.
Cooked it? Rate it.
Cooked 0 times