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 Damask Roses
Ingredients
Directions
Macerate the dried rose petals in boiling distilled water for 12 hours.
Strain the mixture to remove the petals.
Evaporate the strained liquid until it reduces to 2½ pints.
Add the sugar to the reduced liquid and stir until it forms a 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
- Dried damask rose petals
- Provide the characteristic rose aroma and flavour as they steep in the hot water.
- Double refined sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, and thickens the reduced liquid into a syrup.
- Distilled water
- Acts as the solvent that extracts the rose flavour from the petals.
The step that matters
Evaporate the strained liquid. Reducing the liquid concentrates the rose flavour and sets the base for the syrup's thickness. Stopping at the target volume matters, because too much water left in means a thinner syrup, and over-reducing can make it too thick once the sugar is added.
“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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