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Drink

To Distil Rose-Water

A distilled liquid made from red roses and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Distil Rose-Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather dry, fully bloomed red roses and pick off the leaves.

  2. Place the leaves in a cold still and add 1 quart of water.

Distill and bottle

  1. Make a slow fire under the still; the slower you distill it, the better it will be.

  2. After distillation, bottle the rose water and cork it after 2 or 3 days.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

What each ingredient does

Red roses
Provide the aromatic oils that give the rose water its scent and flavour.
Water
Carries the rose aroma over during distillation and forms the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the fire slow during distillation. A slow fire keeps the still's heat gentle, so the delicate rose aromas are carried into the water rather than scorched or lost in a rapid boil.

“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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