Rose Petal Jam Recipe

I was always fascinated by the flower world, its beauty and mystery, secrets the flowers keep away from the humanity. We keep digging to learn and discover more every day. We use flowers in perfumery, flower arranging, healing our body and soul, in cooking. One of these flowers is a Rose – a Queen of all flowers.

Rose is very respectful among the flowers. It has three main medical properties: It is soothing, cooling, and moisturizing. The rose also offers a soothing property to the nerves and emotional/psychological state of mind, nervous tension and heart disease. Rose hips are great source of vitamins C, D, A and E. They also contain citric acid, malic acid, zinc and bioflavonoids.

Most important is that we all can enjoy rose in cooking and there are many food products made with roses. The artisans from France started making a rose liqueur and rose-flavored sweets, biscuits, jam and honey. In Paris, you will find culinary rose essence. In Tunisia, Morocco and India, people make delicious rose syrup. You can come across rose jams and jellies in Poland and Romania.

Most roses are edible. The flavor of roses is distinct and it looks as wonderful as it tastes. Some roses are tastier than the others are. Fragrant red and pink old-fashioned such as – Damask, Old English, Baron Girod, Rugosa – are often used for the jam, as they keep their aroma and flavor during the cooking.

Ingredients

• ½ pound red or dark pink rose petals. The color of the petals will be the color of the jam.
• 2 cups of sugar
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 4 ½ cups of water

Preparation

1. First thing first, we have to wash our roses properly to remove bugs, and then cut off the white bottom of each petal. Discard any petals that might appear brown.

1. Place the rose petals into a bowl and sprinkle the sugar over them to make sure that each petal is coated.  After bruise them with your fingers and cover the bowl with plastic film. Leave the bowl overnight in a cool spot – refrigerator will work.
2. Prepare a saucepan and pour in the remaining sugar, water and lemon juice. Dissolve contents over a low heat. You may also include the seeds of the lemon, which is supposed to contribute pectin and help thicken the jam, this is optional, as some recipes do not specify their need. Your choice.
3. Stir the rose petals into the mixture and allow to simmer 20 min. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 5 more min until the mixture thickens. Stir the jam until a spoonful dropped onto a cold plate jells and holds its shape. However, if you have a jelly thermometer, cook and stir until the temperature reaches 221 F.

                                                                

Pour your jam into a clean, warmed jar and add the cover and a label. If you are not planning to eat your rose jam shortly, use proper canning procedures to make sure the jam keeps in the jar. Store it in a cool place and indulge.

Bon appetite!

I’ve been wanting to write a post about roses and their connection to Morocco for a long time. It’s filed in my “things to write about” file (well I did write this piece about Morocco’s rose festival). It might be blaise, but I do love roses.  I was reminded of that a few weeks ago when my sister gave me a big bouquet of pink roses for Eid. This guest post is from Olga owner of Jardin Majorele Flower Design. 

Sharing is caring!