Why it works: Rose and sugar 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 ↓
Syrup of Roses
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse
Pour boiling water over rose-leaves in a container.
Cover and let it steep for 12 hours.
Strain the mixture.
Make and bottle the syrup
Add loaf sugar and boil until it forms a syrup.
Once cooled, bottle the syrup.
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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Rose + sugartop 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
- Rose-leaves
- Provide the floral aroma and flavour that the water draws out during steeping.
- Boiling water
- Extracts the flavour and aroma from the rose-leaves during steeping.
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once boiled, the thick body that makes the syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar into syrup. Sugar must dissolve fully before the mixture is boiled, and boiling only until it thickens sets the syrup's consistency. Boiling too long concentrates the sugar further, making the syrup thicker and more prone to crystallising as it cools.
“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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