June 2, 2011
Rose petal jam recipes

A few years back a friend bought me a little cookbook entitled country preserves. I flicked through it and among the standards were some interesting berry curds and rose petal jam. Wind forward a few years and I noted that even though we have had a pretty harsh winter some plants had benefited from it. The rose bush that grows on the trellis bordering my vegetable plot was heaving with deep pinky red flowers . Having just got rid of the weeds I could see the rose heads were losing their robustness, were no longer in their prime and about drop. Keeping the garden tidy has always been a bit of a struggle like the repetitive sting of picking up kids toys so the solution flashed back to the jam recipe. I just needed to get out there and pick the rose heads before they dropped and transform them into a jar of jam. A bit like weighing feathers you need a lot of petals for a batch of jam. The ratio is the same for any jam an equal amount of petals to sugar, some freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice and you are set. I made the first batch of jam and stuck to the recipe I found exactly, which is shown below. The petals I used were very thick with almost velvet feel to them from my front garden and then some more delicate textured ones from my back garden. The velvety petals didn’t break down as much as the more delicate ones and I think made the jam too fibrous and the texture to me was not quite right. The next day I made another batch using about 100g fresh cherries and 150g rose petals going only for the more delicate variety. The texture of this jam was perfect and the flavour more subtle.

A note of caution! If you are going to make rose petal jam make sure you only use petals from roses that you know are from a pesticide free source. Roses from a supermarket or a florist are very unlikely to be organic/chemical free and they may be unsafe to eat so even though I had a few in a birthday bouquet they were not included.

Just a thought here on making jam, which many people think of as being a huge overwhelming exercise of steaming kitchens, thermometers and sticky piles of washing up. It absolutely doesn’t have to be like that at all. I often just make a jar when I have left over prepared fruit from dinner or some in the fruit bowl that is past its best. A jar of freshly made jam is very simple to make and just needs a small saucepan and 1 clean jam jar. You only need to go to down the totally sterile route if you want to keep the jam for months but you might get through one jar in a week so no need. On various holiday villas we have been to in Spain with fig trees in the garden is a good example of easy jam making. I always pick a few figs and boil them up with some sugar and fresh orange juice and allow to cool. Warm croissants, fresh fig jam and coffee is one of the best ways I know to start the day. If you are going to use the jam pretty quickly you can just keep it covered in a bowl in the fridge.

Rose Petal Jam
(Source: Favourite Country preserves compiled by Carol Wilson and published by J.Salmon)

Using the method in the recipe above you can now design your own jam. Remember the ratio is equal weight of fruit and petals to sugar. You don't need much liquid as the petals break down pretty quickly a bit like cooking fresh spinach. You must as the recipe states not use the white tips that holds the flower into the flower head. Snip the petals off with a pair of scissors and then wash in a salad spinner as you may have few insects on board.

Rose Petal & Cherry Jam
100g fresh cherries, stones removed
150g delicate rose petals, washed
250g granulated sugar
100ml fresh squeezed lemon and orange juice
(use 1 lemon then top up with orange)

Method
Place all the ingredients in a non stick pan ( I use a small wok for this) and bring to the boil stirring occasionally. Heat a clean jar and lid placed in a tray with a little water to stop the jar cracking in the oven at no more than 100 degrees C. Bring the mixture to the boil and stir regularly until it looks syrupy and its done. This takes around 10 minutes from start to finish as the amount is so small. Pour the hot jam into the hot jar and cover with sheet of paper towel until its cool. Add lid and label and you are done.

I also made a batch of apricot and rose jam using some orange roses that were growing over my fence from a neighbour. This I added some orange blossom water to which added an extra zing.

Coming next rose petal victoria sponge

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