Rose Vinegar: Slightly Less Sucessful

This morning, I decided that the rose vinegar had been steeping on my windowsill long enough. I strained it and poured it into a fancy looking bottle, mixed a little bit with some water and ice, and gave it a taste.

I think this is a vinegar that needs to be used very sparingly. At first I put a wee splash in the glass, and I thought the flavour was too subtle. So I added a bigger splash, and the flavour gave me a headache.

However, the recipe I used said that rose vinegar can be used for marinades and cold compresses for headaches. Also, I used cheap distilled white vinegar. While the cheap stuff worked fine with the blackberries, the rose flavour isn't strong enough to overwhelm the vinegary-ness. Perhaps if one uses white wine vinegar, the whole thing would turn out much more refined. It's also possible that I used too much vinegar. Further experimentation is merited.

In the meantime, I intend to try making marinades with this batch. I also want to try adding it to hot black tea (when the weather cools down).

Here is the recipe I used, taken from Country Pickles and Preserves (one of the more useful preserving books I've used yet):

The petals of 6 roses (preferably red, cause, pretty)
1 pint white wine vinegar

Pull the petals from the roses and wash them. Snip away the bitter white part at the base of each petal. Put into a glass jar or bottle.

Scald the vinegar by heating it to just below boiling and allow to cool. Add the cooled vinegar to the jar of petals. Cover tightly and place in a sunny window for at least 3 weeks.

Try making your own. Let me know how it turns out!