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 ↓
How to Make Rose-water
Ingredients
Directions
Grind the white sugar and 2-3 drops of rose into a fine powder using a mortar.
Pour ½ pint of cold water over the powdered mixture and grind well for a few moments.
Mix this with 1 gallon of cold water.
Let it stand for 3 to 4 days.
Strain through fine muslin.
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.
-
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
- Otto of rose
- Provides the concentrated floral aroma that flavours the whole batch of water.
- White sugar
- Helps break the rose oil into fine particles when ground, so it disperses more evenly in water.
The step that matters
Grinding the sugar with the rose. Rose oil does not dissolve in water, so grinding it into sugar spreads it over the crystals. The sugar then carries the oil into the water far better than adding drops directly, giving a more even scent.
“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.
More rose water recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.