June 27, 2007 - 6:10am
Rose water
After seeing the beautiful breads Meedo and Zainaba have made, I'd like to try them myself. Does anyone have suggestions as to where I might be able to get rose water, especially in the Midwest?
I've thought about making my own, but I don't have roses, and have read that using store bought roses may not be safe because of pesticides.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!
Colleen
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We used to buy it at the local drugstore. (We used it to give ourselves facials.) I haven't bought it in a long time, so I don't know if the drugstores still carry it. If not, it might be findable at a cosmetics place, like the kind you see in the malls that specialize in natural soaps and so forth. Or possiby a health-food place.
"I am not a cook. But I am sorta cooky."
You can order rose water from King Arthur Flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?id=1220
Susanfnp
I wondered the same thing so I asked Meedo. Here's the response.
Submitted by meedo on June 26, 2007 - 3:47pm.About the rose water, I buy it from grocery store, it easy to get it in the Middle East,
Making rose water is so complicated, I know an old woman from Lebanon makes it every year, she use about 40 pound of roses, she tolled me how to do it but haven't try it yet .
First you take the pink roses, wash it then but it in a strainer, place it on top of boiling water, cover it and let it simmer for one day then add a drop of rose essence. Not every one can make it because it's so difficult as I mentioned earlier. So it may works or may not, take my advice and buy it, it more easer than make it.
Now if Meedo is in the Middle East then grocery stores there must carry it. I can't speak to the American ones but I'd look in an ethnic or baking aisle. Probably eaiser to order it on the net.
Check your local ethnic grocery stores, Asian and Middle Eastern, maybe Indian. I know 2 places to get it in Lawrence, Ks, and probably at least 3 in Kansas Cit, and ethnic grocery stores are becoming pretty common in the midwest now.
Check also your health food store. I've worked in a few and they all carried rose water.
Hello Colleen If you dont have a Middle Eastern Store in your Area, and interested to use the rose water, and you have a rose bush in your garden or can get the buds from a rose bush, you can easily make your own, not exactly similar to what they do in Lebanon along the coastal villages, where lots of orange trees and rose bushes grows. The villagers use a big metal pot with pipes to gather the vapour from boiling the flowers with water and collecting the vapour runs through the pipes and dripped into clean glass bottle. Its a very long process, waiting for one drop at a time to fill your bottles , we used to do it in the past, now we purchase our need from a lady who does that for living, selling the pure essence bottled, its not cheap the pure rose water and orange blossom will cost between 20-30 dollars a litre.If you are interested to do your own, wash the rose buds, and boil them adding water like 1/3 amount of the roses, and boil them on low, if the water gets low you can add to it, they need to be simmered for at least 2-3 hours to get the real essence, then strain them, and fill clean glass bottle, I bet you, you will get a better essence flavour out of it than the bottle you will get from the store, even if its made in Lebanon, as you are not getting the pure essence, as someone is doing it for his own use and not for sale.
We do the same process, to our rose water drink, after the essence water is cooled, we mix it with thick syrup (3 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cup of water, 2 drops of lemon juice, boiled to thicken – thicker than the regular syrup) bottled and kept in the fridge to be used as a refreshing drink during the summer, adding cold water and ice to it. as the syrup-essence will be very thick.
if you try it, let me know the result,
ps.: i think using a slow cooker in this technique will be convenient, as it will cook slowly, and you will get a nice smell for days to come in your house. we never tried it, as my mom doesnt have a slow cooker, but cooper pots, and heavy cast iron .
Arlette
I wonder if this might be of interest.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/rose-water-how-to-make-your-own.html ( I picked the link up from www.renaissancehenna.com who specialise in henna and indigo, natural hair colour dyes !) .
I have bought rose water in the past ( in the UK & for cosmetic purposes) from www.akamuti.co.uk - they do a good range of natural products. Wherever you buy from, look for "organic" for what it's worth.