Homemade Rose Water and How to Use It
Not many flowers are more beloved than roses. One of the definite joys of spring and summer here and around the world for that matter. Being a chef, I try to grow a variety of edible flowers, and roses are one of my favorites in that category. Not all roses are culinarily desirable though. If it isn't aromatic, it won't taste good. The better it smells, the better it will taste. Roses with little to no aroma will be quite bitter.
Roses will give back tenfold if you keep them dead-headed throughout the season. If you leave a dead head on after the petals have fallen, it will try to make rose hips, which can also be great for a number of things, but that's a whole other post. If you want lots of blooms ongoing, you want to keep those dead heads trimmed, so that the energy the plant would spend trying to make rose hips will be spent making lots of other roses instead. Once you see the difference in number of blooms you will get from your plant if you keep it faithfully pruned, it won't seem a chore at all to give it extra attention. I keep my trimmers close at hand and I'm constantly pruning while I enjoy smelling them and admiring them.
Which brings me to the original point of this post. If I dead-head the flowers once they're fully opened and the petals are just starting to droop, but are still fresh and not withered, I can make rose water with them. This is especially nice to do with my Sun Spray roses. They are so aromatic and the blooms are so plentiful, I can make a large amount at one time and either freeze it or can it to enjoy all year long, and just maybe share a little.
I take the time to do a true distillation as opposed to just simmering and straining. It's much easier than it may seem or sound, and you can do it with ordinary kitchen equipment that you most likely have on hand. Simmering is another viable method used to produce it and it works, but it isn't nearly the same quality as the distilled rose water, and it won't keep nearly as long. Incidentally, this process can be used with any edible, aromatic flower and used in the same applications. Magnolia, plumeria, honeysuckle, jasmine, peonies, citrus blossoms, lavender; etc. Just keep in mind, it will add the essence of the aroma of the flower to whatever you use it in; much the same way vanilla works for cooking applications. It is used in similar quantities as vanilla - just to give you a point of reference. Different flower waters can be great to combine together for different effects and flavors, and they can even be combined with other essential oils and vanilla too. It's fun experimenting! For example, lavender and vanilla are a great combo, as is honeysuckle and vanilla; they compliment each other.
How do you use rose water? There are many, many ways to use it.
Beverages: Add rose water to taste to your hot/iced tea or herbal tea. Start with a half teaspoon per glass/cup, and go from there. Add it to spritzers and cocktails (both alcoholic and non), add it to lemonade or other fruit waters, or just add it to plain water to give it a luxurious twist. It is also delicious added to warm milk at bedtime to relax the senses.
Sweet things made with dairy: Whipped cream - add it when you would add the vanilla, toward the end of the desired peak stage. Yogurt - rose water goes well with many fresh fruits and can be added with whole berries in yogurt, or in your favorite smoothie. Ice cream - again with the berries and fruits of all kinds, or simply on its own in homemade ice cream. Creme brulée and custards. Same idea as the ice cream.
Ices and sorbets: Fruit juice bases are great combos.
Rice and pasta dishes: Such as rice pudding, rice pilaf and cous cous. Rice pilaf is great with rose water, sweet shallots and dried fruit such as dried diced apricots, cranberries or golden raisins. Add the dried fruit at the beginning when you add the rice and add the rosewater at the end when you are seasoning it. A pinch of organic sugar (evaporated cane juice) or a drizzle of honey will really bring out the rose essence in pilaf.
French toast, pancakes and waffles: A French chef I worked with back when I was a culinary instructor taught me his version of French toast (I figured he might know a good one haha), and he added orange blossom water to the egg wash used to soak the stale baguette slices in. It is just as good - if not better with rose water instead of orange blossom water. Put it directly in the batter for pancakes and waffles.
Salad dressing: Add it to your favorite mild vinaigrette. Fruit salad dressed with the rose water whipped cream is extra special too! One of my favorites is a sweet shallot vinaigrette I make and serve with rose water and herb marinated grilled chicken, goat cheese, toasted almonds and sliced strawberries that have also been macerated with a little sugar and rose water.
Brines and marinades: Whether for chicken, fish or pork, rose water added to the brine will give it an ethereal dimension. Being such a subtle flavor, it tends to get lost with beef and gamier meats, although lamb with a side of rose water and dried fruit rice pilaf is divine.
Syrup, Jams & Jellies: Again with the fruit. Or just plain.
Go Overboard: How about rose water French toast with rose water syrup, topped with fresh fruit that has been macerated with sugar and rose water, and then top that with rose water enhanced whipped cream, garnished with fresh rose petals? I guess it just depends on how much you like this stuff!
Not just in the kitchen: Rose water is a natural astringent and can be used straight in a spray bottle as a facial toner. Add it to distilled water along with a teaspoon of vodka to use as room and linen freshener or personal cologne. The distilled water and vodka will help it last longer. The amount of rose water you use with the distilled water in the spray is up to personal preference. Just keep in mind that you can always add more. Store it in the refrigerator to make it last the longest. This is another area you can experiment with combinations of your rose water and other flower waters and essential oils.
I ended up trimming 2 dozen flowers for this post. That's just how many there were on my 2 bushes that day that were at the stage I was after. When I use my Perfume Delight pink heirlooms, I can get a good amount from fewer flowers because the blooms are so enormous. The way I wrote this procedure, you can use as few or as many as you have on hand - you will simply cover however many you end up with (or whatever flower you are using), with just enough water. Again, you just want them to be fresh and not withered, a bit wilted as shown above is fine. Check for good aroma, as they will begin to lose it as they wilt.
The good news is you don't need any special equipment (such as a still) to do this method. Here's what you'll need:
A pan to simmer: The size pan you use will depend on the size of batch you're doing. I used one of my larger stock pots for this batch because it was so large. If you're doing a very small batch, you could even use a deep, large sauce pan.
A domed lid: Preferably glass, although it doesn't have to be. With a glass domed lid, you can see better what's going on with the condensation. It does absolutely need to be domed though, a flat lid won't work properly.
A glass or stainless steel bowl to catch the condensation: It just needs to be smaller than your simmering pan, and shallow enough that the lid can be put on the pan upside down and the handle will still clear it.
Something to set the catch bowl on: I use an antique fireplace brick that came with the house, which was built in 1920. It has been sanitized and is basically part of my kitchen equipment. My brick gets used for all kinds of things in the kitchen, but that's a whole other blog post. Whatever you use needs to be able to take the heat and fit inside your simmering pan. You can also make a ring of crinkled up foil. You just want it to be able to hold your catch bowl up high enough to clear the flower petals and water as shown.
A hot pad to remove the lid: Personally I prefer my terry kitchen towel folded to protect both my hands at once. If you are working with large quantities, two oven mitts will work too.
Something to remove the hot catch bowl properly: I find that my canning jar tongs work perfectly, the curved shape works really well to keep the bowl level and steady to transfer the precious contents to my interim container. You could use a good solid pair of tongs, but this is something to have worked out before you are in the middle of the process and it's time to empty your catch bowl! Practice while everything is still cool, before it goes on the heat, to be sure this can be a smooth maneuver; you won't want to waste a drop of what ends up in your catch bowl!
A sanitary kitchen sponge to remove the melted ice water: This is something I came up with to be able to go longer in between emptying my catch bowl. It speeds the process up considerably.
A sanitized interim container to empty the catch bowl into: Choose something larger than the volume of what you think you may end up with. I use a wide mouth quart Mason jar when I am doing large batches. You can sanitize a clean jar in the oven on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes to do the job, or you can boil it submersed in water for at least 20 minutes. Some dishwashers' dry cycle is hot enough to sanitize as well.
A sanitized glass container to store it in: Or several if you are doing a large batch. You can freeze the extra in small Mason jars to make it last longer, and that way you can enjoy your roses all year long. Nothing like that aroma to get that feeling of summer in the dead of winter! That's when you might want to put some in a spray bottle to spritz your pillow with before bedtime! Sanitize like you would the interim container.
Roses will give back tenfold if you keep them dead-headed throughout the season. If you leave a dead head on after the petals have fallen, it will try to make rose hips, which can also be great for a number of things, but that's a whole other post. If you want lots of blooms ongoing, you want to keep those dead heads trimmed, so that the energy the plant would spend trying to make rose hips will be spent making lots of other roses instead. Once you see the difference in number of blooms you will get from your plant if you keep it faithfully pruned, it won't seem a chore at all to give it extra attention. I keep my trimmers close at hand and I'm constantly pruning while I enjoy smelling them and admiring them.
Which brings me to the original point of this post. If I dead-head the flowers once they're fully opened and the petals are just starting to droop, but are still fresh and not withered, I can make rose water with them. This is especially nice to do with my Sun Spray roses. They are so aromatic and the blooms are so plentiful, I can make a large amount at one time and either freeze it or can it to enjoy all year long, and just maybe share a little.
 |
| Sun Spray roses are a great choice because they are so aromatic and the blooms so prolific |
I take the time to do a true distillation as opposed to just simmering and straining. It's much easier than it may seem or sound, and you can do it with ordinary kitchen equipment that you most likely have on hand. Simmering is another viable method used to produce it and it works, but it isn't nearly the same quality as the distilled rose water, and it won't keep nearly as long. Incidentally, this process can be used with any edible, aromatic flower and used in the same applications. Magnolia, plumeria, honeysuckle, jasmine, peonies, citrus blossoms, lavender; etc. Just keep in mind, it will add the essence of the aroma of the flower to whatever you use it in; much the same way vanilla works for cooking applications. It is used in similar quantities as vanilla - just to give you a point of reference. Different flower waters can be great to combine together for different effects and flavors, and they can even be combined with other essential oils and vanilla too. It's fun experimenting! For example, lavender and vanilla are a great combo, as is honeysuckle and vanilla; they compliment each other.
How to use rose water
How do you use rose water? There are many, many ways to use it.
Beverages: Add rose water to taste to your hot/iced tea or herbal tea. Start with a half teaspoon per glass/cup, and go from there. Add it to spritzers and cocktails (both alcoholic and non), add it to lemonade or other fruit waters, or just add it to plain water to give it a luxurious twist. It is also delicious added to warm milk at bedtime to relax the senses.
Sweet things made with dairy: Whipped cream - add it when you would add the vanilla, toward the end of the desired peak stage. Yogurt - rose water goes well with many fresh fruits and can be added with whole berries in yogurt, or in your favorite smoothie. Ice cream - again with the berries and fruits of all kinds, or simply on its own in homemade ice cream. Creme brulée and custards. Same idea as the ice cream.
Ices and sorbets: Fruit juice bases are great combos.
Rice and pasta dishes: Such as rice pudding, rice pilaf and cous cous. Rice pilaf is great with rose water, sweet shallots and dried fruit such as dried diced apricots, cranberries or golden raisins. Add the dried fruit at the beginning when you add the rice and add the rosewater at the end when you are seasoning it. A pinch of organic sugar (evaporated cane juice) or a drizzle of honey will really bring out the rose essence in pilaf.
French toast, pancakes and waffles: A French chef I worked with back when I was a culinary instructor taught me his version of French toast (I figured he might know a good one haha), and he added orange blossom water to the egg wash used to soak the stale baguette slices in. It is just as good - if not better with rose water instead of orange blossom water. Put it directly in the batter for pancakes and waffles.
Salad dressing: Add it to your favorite mild vinaigrette. Fruit salad dressed with the rose water whipped cream is extra special too! One of my favorites is a sweet shallot vinaigrette I make and serve with rose water and herb marinated grilled chicken, goat cheese, toasted almonds and sliced strawberries that have also been macerated with a little sugar and rose water.
Brines and marinades: Whether for chicken, fish or pork, rose water added to the brine will give it an ethereal dimension. Being such a subtle flavor, it tends to get lost with beef and gamier meats, although lamb with a side of rose water and dried fruit rice pilaf is divine.
Syrup, Jams & Jellies: Again with the fruit. Or just plain.
Go Overboard: How about rose water French toast with rose water syrup, topped with fresh fruit that has been macerated with sugar and rose water, and then top that with rose water enhanced whipped cream, garnished with fresh rose petals? I guess it just depends on how much you like this stuff!
Not just in the kitchen: Rose water is a natural astringent and can be used straight in a spray bottle as a facial toner. Add it to distilled water along with a teaspoon of vodka to use as room and linen freshener or personal cologne. The distilled water and vodka will help it last longer. The amount of rose water you use with the distilled water in the spray is up to personal preference. Just keep in mind that you can always add more. Store it in the refrigerator to make it last the longest. This is another area you can experiment with combinations of your rose water and other flower waters and essential oils.
Which roses and how many should you use?
Ideally, if you plan to use your rose water for food preparation, you want to use very fragrant flowers that haven't been treated with pesticides or fungicides. This is why I like to use flowers I have grown myself. You can use fragrant roses from a florist to make the water for the other purposes listed above, but you might want to think twice about eating something you're not sure how was grown, if you are concerned about toxins in your diet.
If you are using your own roses, plan to do your distillation immediately following the pruning/harvesting. Harvest in the morning just after the dew has evaporated, before the heat of the day. Clip them just below the bud head, after they have opened fully, but before the petals begin to drop and wither. Same with roses from the florist, after they have opened fully, but before they wither and drop.
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| I love being able to use these petals for another purpose besides just letting them drop! |
What equipment do I need?
The good news is you don't need any special equipment (such as a still) to do this method. Here's what you'll need:
A pan to simmer: The size pan you use will depend on the size of batch you're doing. I used one of my larger stock pots for this batch because it was so large. If you're doing a very small batch, you could even use a deep, large sauce pan.
A domed lid: Preferably glass, although it doesn't have to be. With a glass domed lid, you can see better what's going on with the condensation. It does absolutely need to be domed though, a flat lid won't work properly.
A glass or stainless steel bowl to catch the condensation: It just needs to be smaller than your simmering pan, and shallow enough that the lid can be put on the pan upside down and the handle will still clear it.
Something to set the catch bowl on: I use an antique fireplace brick that came with the house, which was built in 1920. It has been sanitized and is basically part of my kitchen equipment. My brick gets used for all kinds of things in the kitchen, but that's a whole other blog post. Whatever you use needs to be able to take the heat and fit inside your simmering pan. You can also make a ring of crinkled up foil. You just want it to be able to hold your catch bowl up high enough to clear the flower petals and water as shown.
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| The brick is perfect for larger batches. I would use the foil ring, or an inverted heat proof bowl for smaller batches. |
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| This catch bowl is the perfect size to catch the drips that will form and fall with the condensation that will occur on the inverted, domed lid |
Something to remove the hot catch bowl properly: I find that my canning jar tongs work perfectly, the curved shape works really well to keep the bowl level and steady to transfer the precious contents to my interim container. You could use a good solid pair of tongs, but this is something to have worked out before you are in the middle of the process and it's time to empty your catch bowl! Practice while everything is still cool, before it goes on the heat, to be sure this can be a smooth maneuver; you won't want to waste a drop of what ends up in your catch bowl!
A sanitary kitchen sponge to remove the melted ice water: This is something I came up with to be able to go longer in between emptying my catch bowl. It speeds the process up considerably.
A sanitized interim container to empty the catch bowl into: Choose something larger than the volume of what you think you may end up with. I use a wide mouth quart Mason jar when I am doing large batches. You can sanitize a clean jar in the oven on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes to do the job, or you can boil it submersed in water for at least 20 minutes. Some dishwashers' dry cycle is hot enough to sanitize as well.
A sanitized glass container to store it in: Or several if you are doing a large batch. You can freeze the extra in small Mason jars to make it last longer, and that way you can enjoy your roses all year long. Nothing like that aroma to get that feeling of summer in the dead of winter! That's when you might want to put some in a spray bottle to spritz your pillow with before bedtime! Sanitize like you would the interim container.
What ingredients do I need?
Flower petals: These need to be removed from the head and rinsed thoroughly.
Filtered water: You could use distilled, but it isn't necessary since this is a distillation process. Just use water that has had the chlorine removed. You need enough to just cover the petals in the bottom of your simmering pot.
Ice: The bigger the batch, the more ice you will need.
The Process - Step by Step
- Remove the petals from the flower heads and rinse. I like to remove them to an over-sized bowl that I can then fill with plenty of water and swish them around good. Then I dry them in a salad spinner. The centrifugal force of the salad spinner will remove even more little bits of debris that didn't come off in the water.
- Put your brick or foil, or whatever you are using to hold your catch bowl with directly in the center of your simmering pot. We'll call it a stand from here on, for purposes of discussion.
- Add the clean flower petals all around the stand and then add just enough filtered water to cover the petals thoroughly. Too much water and you will end up with a weak rose water. You want to be sure your stand is above the level of the water covering the flower petals.
- Add your catch bowl. This is where the magic will collect. Be sure it is centered nicely on your stand in the middle of your simmering pot.
- Cover with the domed lid inverted. Don't put it on the way you usually do, instead, turn it upside-down so that the curved side and handle is hanging down in the pot. This is what the condensation will drip from.
- Bring to a low simmer. And I mean a very low simmer. You want it just hot enough to create a good amount of steam that will collect on the inverted, domed lid and drip down into your catch bowl. At this point I go by the sound, you want to hear just a little bit of activity going on in there. It's hard to see down there with the lid on (even if it's glass), and you will stop the process every time you remove the lid to check - which is totally counter-productive, so going by the sound is the best way to go.
- Watch for steam to collect on the inverted lid and add the ice. This is where the glass lid comes in really handy - you can see what's going on. If you don't have a glass lid, wait for about 7 minutes of low simmer activity. With the glass lid, you'll know it's ready when the steam turns to discernible water drops and begin to grow larger and collect together. At this point you want to add the ice to the center of the lid. This will encourage the steam to collect even more in that area and more rapidly, where it will begin to drip down into your catch bowl.
- Remove the melted ice water with the sponge and add more fresh ice. A lot of methods similar to this will have you dump the melted iced water and empty your catch bowl as well every time the ice melts. Keep in mind that each time you remove the lid, you stop the process and allow valuable steam to escape. Removing the melted ice water with the sponge allows me to to keep the lid in place, add more ice and keep chugging along. Using my sponge water-removal method, I only empty my catch bowl about once every 45 minutes with a large batch like this. You will want to do it more often with smaller batches, because you will have a smaller catch bowl.
- Empty your catch bowl on a regular basis. You want to keep a close eye on the water level at the bottom that covers your petals. If you allow it all to evaporate and your flowers burn, you could ruin whatever is in the catch bowl at the time. Keep in mind it's all about the aroma. Like I mentioned in step 8, I check and empty about every 45 minutes with the very large batches, because I can use a larger catch bowl; but you will want to do it about every 20 minutes with smaller batches. Doing it on such a low heat and checking regularly, you can allow the base water to get very low without burning. Remove the lid with your pot holders and be careful to hold the edge directly over your catch bowl as you tip it vertically, to allow all the condensation to drip directly into the catch bowl and get every drop. Remove the catch bowl carefully and steadily - preferably with canning tongs, and empty into your interim holding vessel. I use a sanitized quart Mason jar with large batches. Again, choose a container that you think is over-sized from what you'll end up with and a tight fitting lid to keep it all in.
- Stop while there's still a little water left in the bottom of the pot. I go until there's about 1/2" left. Any lower than that and you run the risk of all of the water evaporating and ruining the flavor of whatever you have in the catch bowl at that time. Should that happen, the good news is, that whatever you have emptied into your interim vessel will still be golden! It may be tempting to strain the water at the bottom and add it to the other, but that would defeat the purpose of the careful distillation. If you're going to do that, you may as well just use the simmer method. Avoid the temptation and just throw it out.
This is how much of the final product I ended up with. Quite a large amount - almost a quart. This was from 2 dozen roses, and took a total of 2 1/2 hours to distill. A labor of love worth every minute for an end result this clear, pure and concentrated. Simmered rose water (as opposed to distilled) will most likely be colored and cloudy, and have a much shorter shelf life.
- Cool and store. The end product should never get that hot if you're adding your ice on a regular basis and emptying your catch bowl regularly as well. Keep the lid on your interim vessel between emptyings and allow it to be at room temperature before adding it to whatever sanitized containers you want to ultimately use to store it. I'll divide this jar between smaller jelly jars, top with plastic lids like the one in the picture and freeze it to enjoy for months to come!
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