Category → GUEST POST by DrRubidium
September 16th, 2011
Kitchen Chemistry: Rose Jelly. Sweet!
hand washed petals used to make rose jelly
Today, we bring you a fun, educational guest post from our friend and colleague, DrRubidium, a chemist researching and teaching on the Pacific Northwest. You can follow her on Twitter at @DrRubidium – DJK.
This summer, I began experimenting with jams and jellies, whipping up sweet and savory spreads in my kitchen laboratory. Blackberry, strawberry, grape, pineapple, tomato herb… rose?
After tasting rose jelly at a local farmer’s market, I decided make it at home.
The selected rose jelly recipe was easy:
- Steep hand-washed rose petals in water
- Filter out and discard solids, retain liquid (rose extract)
- Add sugar to rose extract
- Reach rolling boil
- Add pectin (read about the science of pectin here)
- Return to rolling boil
- Bottle and seal jars.
This recipe doesn’t just yield jelly, it also provides a great example of acid-base chemistry.
