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Roses, Tincture Of
Take the leaves of the common rose and place them, without pressing, in an ordinary bottle; pour some good spirits of wine upon them, close the bottle, and set aside till required for use. Common vinegar is greatly improved by a very small quantity of the tincture of roses being added to it.
A one-line maceration that behaves like a homemade extract. Two words in it need translating before you start: "leaves" and "spirits of wine."
- "Leaves" means petalsIn nineteenth-century flower recipes the leaves of a rose are its petals, not the foliage. Use petals only, with the bitter white heel at the base pinched off if you want a clean flavour.
- Spirits of wineThis is rectified spirit — neutral grain alcohol at roughly 90-95 percent. The nearest current equivalent is a high-proof drinking spirit such as Everclear, or failing that an unflavoured vodka at 50 percent or above, which extracts more slowly.
- Never substitute methylated or rubbing alcoholModern hardware-shop "methylated spirits" and surgical spirit are denatured with methanol or other additives and are poisonous. Only a spirit sold for drinking belongs in this bottle.
- The roses matterUse strongly scented unsprayed petals — old damask, gallica or rugosa types carry far more perfume than florist hybrid teas, which are bred for shape and shipping and are routinely treated with pesticides.
- Pack loosely, as instructed"Without pressing" is the hinge of the recipe. Bruised petals release sap and green notes; loose whole petals give a clearer, more floral tincture.
- Time and finishingThe recipe gives no steeping time, only "set aside till required for use"; two to four weeks in a cool dark place should be ample, and the petals go pale and papery when they have given up their scent. Strain through muslin and bottle; at this alcohol strength it will keep a long time.
- Dosage"A very small quantity" means drops, not spoonfuls. Start with two or three drops in a cup of vinegar, taste, and build up — the tincture is concentrated and turns soapy if overdone.
- YieldA 500 ml bottle loosely filled with petals and topped with spirit will give you a few hundred millilitres of tincture, which at a few drops a time is a very long-lasting supply for one household.
Rose flavouring was ordinary in English kitchens well into the eighteenth century — rosewater went into custards, marchpane and sweet meat pies — and Cassell's, compiled in the 1870s and 80s, catches the tail end of that habit as it retreated into the still-room and the medicine chest. The tincture reads as a store-cupboard preparation of the kind kept alongside flavoured vinegars and essences, made once and drawn on for a long time. Alcohol extracts the volatile compounds that carry rose scent more completely than water does, which is why a spirit tincture is stronger than distilled rosewater and why the book specifies only a very little.