Dishes with roses

[Pam Brunning]

I have a recipe using guinea fowl that requires 2 cups of rose petals. As I need to try the recipe before the roses in my garden are in bloom I wondered about trying it with dried petals. Does anyone know if they have sufficient scent to impart anything to the meat and the sauce. The recipe calls for the bird to be stuffed with rose petals.

[sheepish]

I've used dried rosebuds from thespicery.com in Ras al Hanout, and they definitely have sufficient scent to impart flavour.

[Lindacakes]

I am only familiar with using fresh.

[Jenni]

Pam, do the dried petals have much fragrance? Some dried petals I have had have been very fragrant, others less so.

[djyee100]

There's plenty of scent in dried rose petals if you just sniff 'em. I don't know what's left after they've been cooked with meat. However, it's the rose essential oil in both fresh and dried roses that gives off the scent, so I would guess fresh and dried roses are somewhat interchangeable.

In my experience, most recipes that call for rose scent in cooking use rose water. A food-safe rose essential oil is also possible.

Where are you buying your dried rose petals? Good spice suppliers have herbalists on staff who might know, especially if the herbalist is a dedicated cook also. (Many herbalists I've met are serious cooks.)

Edited March 24, 2011 by djyee100 (log)

[bague25]

Pam,

You could you the dried petals to provide "bulk" for the stuffing and add some essential oil or rose water if you are worried about the flavour.

[Pam Brunning]

I haven’t got any yet, I was going to buy on line but it seems as though they need to be tasted first. As you say probably best to add to the flavour with rose oil or rose water. Thanks for the ideas

[OliverB]

If you have Persian or Iranian etc markets, they usually sell them in bags on the spice rack. Just as a guess, I'd think dried ones work better for cooking, won't fresh ones turn to mush? I could see using dried ones for cooking, then add fesh ones as decoration on the finished dish. Also, it seems like the dried ones are rose buds, and are relatively small, maybe some particular kind of rose?

At the same markets you can find rose water, probably rose oil as well.