“Do you want roses for jam? My mother’s roses are blooming like crazy and she’s already picked what she will use for the season.” Thus read the text message from our friend Ozlem Sensoy and, within a few days, we were raiding Mrs. Sensoy’s intensely fragrant garden. That evening, we set to making jam.
We picked somewhere around 60 blossoms…
… pulled of the stems and trimmed the white connective tissue, leaving only the soft petals…
… massaged them with sugar and lemon juice until they were a macerated pulp…
… boiled them in sugar syrup until it was well-infused, deeply colored, and appropriately thickened…
… and canned the resulting jam.
It is fabulous on homemade english muffins…
… or atop homemade yogurt, among other uses.
memestream 
Rose jam is very delicious! It was one of the most precious gifts I got from India at the birth of my first daughter.
This looks so delicious!!!
This is great! I was over there yesterday, and the bush is crazy with more blooms MORE BLOOMS than when we saw it Sunday. That little thing loves where it’s at. We can go back for more if you want. I’m thinking about boiling them up with sugar water and making a syrup for the hummingbirds. What do you think?
Hummingbirds are sugar sluts. A few may put on airs, tilt-up their beaks, and profess to prefer their syrup with essence of rose, but I’m not fooled. Takes a poseur to know a poseur. Put out sugar syrup and they will come, rose-or-no-rose.
I’m going to call hummingbirds SUGAR SLUTS from now on!!!
I sure would live some rose jam…do you deliver? Is there a min order?
Nice that you checked-back-in, Jan. And glad that you are still “painting people“.
If you’re into making jelly out of flowers, now is a good time to try queen anne’s lace jelly. It’s a lovely, subtle flavor.
Sounds like a must-try, Donna. The stuff looks wonderful. Wouldn’t have expected the beautiful color. Here’s a run-down on another blog for those of you who are curious.
Love your blogs…lost track of them for a while, but finally found the link again! Fun to read them when I am not painting people .
I didn’t expect the color the first time I tried it either. In fact the recipe I used from an old cook book called for red food coloring. Once I saw the lovely pink it produced naturally, I put the food coloring away.
Nice article here, very informative. In the Philippines, we already have exotic restaurants serving dishes incorporated with flower petals. I`ll surely try your rose petals jam. I just need the proper proportions for sugar-water-rose petals and just how long they need to be boiled altogether.
Brings back memories of watching “Like Water for Chocolate” where the quail in rose petal sauce caused quite a stir :)
Does your rose petal jam have the same affect?
there are lot of people will be be happy great work