Rose Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the roses
Gather fresh roses in the morning after sunrise in dry weather.
Remove the leaves and weigh them.
Steep
In a pan, combine the roses with water and salt, and let steep for 24 hours.
Distill
Fill the distillation apparatus two-thirds full and place a bed of straw at the bottom.
Distill the mixture, collecting the first four pints for the best quality.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Roses
- Supply the aromatic oils that give the rose water its scent and flavour.
- Water
- Carries the rose aromas during steeping and turns them into vapour during distillation.
The step that matters
Collecting the first four pints. The earliest distillate carries the most volatile aromatic compounds, so later fractions are weaker in scent. Stopping the collection at the right point keeps the rose aroma strongest.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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