[Sca-cooks] And now- for something completely different!- rose hips!

[Stefan li Rous]

'Lainie asked:
> I have been eyeballing the roses out front, and there's probably a dozen
> or more fat, juicy-looking rose hips on the straggly old-fashioned roses
> in front of the dining room window (Regina could tell what kind they are
> but she's not home to ask). I've been thinking that they aren't enough
> to really do anything with, but maybe enough to experiment with. What
> does one do with rose hips?

Are all of the roses now rosehips or are there some rose petals left?
There are some recipes and things to do with both rose petals and rosehips
in this file in the FOOD section of the Florilegium:
cook-flowers-msg  (78K)  2/23/01    Cooking with flowers. Medieval
flower dishes
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/cooking-flowers-msg.html

If you have rose petals, perhaps even those you wouldn't want to eat, you
could make rosary beads out of them.
In the RELIGION section:
rosaries-msg      (52K) 12/ 8/00    Period rosaries and their use.
Making rose
                                       beads.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/RELIGION/rosaries-msg.html

These files might also be of interest:
roses-art         (36K)  5/15/97    "Sacred Iron Posies" by Daniel del Cavallo.
                                       (medieval roses).
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/roses-art.html
rose-syrup-msg    (10K)  6/24/99    Making rose syrup. It's uses. Sources.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/rose-syrup-msg.html
rose-water-msg    (34K) 11/27/00    Where to buy. How to make.
Rose-water uses.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/rose-water-msg.html

The following is from the cook-flowers-msg file. Not necessarily period,
but perhaps of interest anyway:
> All of these are from "Rose Recipes from Olden Times" by Eleanour
> Sinclair Rohde, Dover edition ["Unabridged, unaltered republication
> of original (1939) edition.]. Some of her recipes have attributions
> attached, others not.  I have made sure I have reproduced the recipes
> as exactly as I can, given the limitations of straight ASCII text
> (i.e., those are not typos down there in the Russian recipe).
>
>    Alys of Foxdale          Shire of Stierbach, Kingdom of Atlantia
>  mka Sallie Montuori               Chantilly, Virginia, USA
> foxdale at wolfstar.com
>
>
> ROSE HIP MARMALADE
> Ingredients:  Wild rose hips, Sugar.
> Method.  To every pound of Rose hips allow half a pint of water.  Boil
> till the fruit is tender.  Pass the pulp through a sieve fine enough
> to keep back the seeds.  To each pound of pulp allow a pound of
> preserving sugar.  Boil till it jellies.
>
>
> TO MAKE A CONSERVE OF ROSE HIPS
> Gather the hips before they grow soft, cut off the heads and stalks,
> slit them in halves, and take out all the seeds and white that is in
> them very clean; then put in an earthen pan, and stir them every day
> else they will grow mouldy; let them stand till they are soft enough
> to rub through a coarse hair sieve; as the pulp comes take it off the
> seive; they are a dry berry; will require pains to rub it through;
> then add its weight in sugar, and mix it well together without
> boiling; keeping it in deep gallipots for use. -- E. Smith.  The
> Complete Housewife 1736.
>
>
> TO MAKE A TART OF HIPS
> Take hips, cut them and take out the seeds very clean, then wash them
> and season them with sugar, cinnamon and ginger, close the tart, bake
> it scrape on sugar and serve it in. -- The Art and Mystery of Cookery
> Approved by the Fifty-five Years Experience and Industry of Robert May
> 1671.
>
>
> MARMALADE FROM ROSE HIPS
> To every pound of hips allow half a pint of water; boil till the fruit
> is tender, then pass the pulp through a sieve which will keep back the
> seeds.  To each pound of pulp add one pound of preserving sugar and
> boil until it jellies. -- E. G. Hayden.  Travels Round Our Village.
>
>
> JAM MADE WITH THE BERRIES OF WILD DOG ROSES
> Choose ripe large sound berries from a dog rose bush (Eglantine).
> They should be hard.  Scrape each berry and cut off tip through
> opening remove pulp with the aid of a bodkin or tiny spoon, being
> careful not to break berry.  Tie a piece of linen round the bodkin or
> little spoon and wipe the inside to remove any pulp that may remain.
> There are fine hairs which must be removed.  Drop berries into cold
> water and rinse several times shaking about to make sure that all
> little hairs are gone.  Put into a saucepan, pour over boiling water,
> put on fire and as soon as the water boils again pour berries out on a
> sieve and pour cold water over them,  Then put a clean cloth over the
> sieve and put each berry standing with the little hole underneath to
> drain well.
>   Prepare syrup.  For every pound of berries use 3 lb. sugar and 23/4
> 2 and 3/4 cups water.  Let it boil twice then put in berries and cook
> till tender.  Remove scum which forms on jam.  When tender pour into
> china bowl, tie a cloth over and let stand for several days.  Every
> now and then move the bowl about, so that the berries are well filled
> with the syrup.  Pour into jars and close with air-tight stoppers or
> parchment paper.  Keep in a dry place. -- The Russian Cook Book.
> Compiled and translated by Princess Alexandre Gazarene 1924.

--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****