Why it works: Sugar and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,584 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Rose Lozenges
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
Steep gui dragon in rose-water.
Mix with 8 pounds of powdered sugar until it forms a soft paste.
Color the paste with vegetable carmine or cochineal.
If needed, add a drop of essence of roses for flavor.
Shape and dry
Roll out the paste to about ¼ inch thickness on a clean marble slab, dusting with powdered sugar or starch to prevent sticking.
Cut into shapes with a tin cutter.
Place the cut shapes on a sieve to dry in the stove, then store in boxes.
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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Powdered sugar
- Forms the bulk of the paste and provides all the sweetness.
- Gui dragon
- Gum that binds the sugar into a pliable paste that holds its shape when cut.
- Rose-water
- Liquid that carries the rose aroma and helps hydrate the gum into the paste.
- Vegetable carmine or cochineal
- Natural colorant that gives the lozenges their pink tint.
The step that matters
Drying the cut shapes. Sugar paste with gum and moisture can soften, weep or stick if it is not dried evenly and kept away from humidity. Drying the shapes fully on a sieve lets them firm up so they hold their form and store without clumping.
“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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