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Distilled Waters (Preservation of Flowers)
Preservation of Flowers for Distillation.
Rub 3 lb. of rose-leaves for 2 or 3 minutes with 1 lb. of common salt. The flowers being bruised by the friction of the grains of salt, form a paste, which is to be put into an earthen jar, or into a water-tight barrel. The same process is to be repeated until the vessel is filled, so that all the roses may be equally salted. The vessel is then to be shut up and kept in a cool place until wanted. For distillation, this aromatic paste is, at any season, to be put into the body of the still with twice its weight of water; and when heat is ap-
This is a keeping method rather than a finished product: it salts down rose petals at harvest so that rose water can be distilled at any time of year. The salt does the preserving and, because salt is non-volatile, none of it carries into the distillate.
- "Rose-leaves" means petalsIn this period the word covers the petals only, not the foliage. Strip the petals, discard calyx, stem and green parts, which give a grassy, bitter note.
- The ratio, and why it mattersThree parts petals to one part salt by weight is about a third of the flower weight in salt, or a quarter of the finished mass, high enough to stop spoilage outright. Use plain non-iodised salt; iodised or anti-caking salt can taint the aroma.
- Bruising is the pointThe two or three minutes of rubbing is not mixing, it is crushing. The salt grains tear the petal cells so the mass collapses into a damp paste and its own liquor covers it. Underworked petals stay dry and will mould in the pockets of air.
- VesselAn earthenware crock or a wide glass jar works; avoid bare metal, which brine attacks. Pack in layers, press each down hard to exclude air, and keep the paste under its own brine. The text specifies only 'a cool place', i.e. a cellar or cold larder rather than any stated temperature.
- Only food-grade flowersUse roses you know have had no pesticide, systemic feed or florist's preservative. Damask and centifolia types are the traditional distilling roses and are far more fragrant than modern florist hybrids.
- The still chargeTwice the weight of water to paste means, for example, 4 lb of salted paste to 8 lb of water. This is a water distillation, not steam-through: the material sits in the charge, so heat gently and keep it from catching on the bottom.
- What to collectThe text breaks off before it says how much to draw. Distillers generally stop while the distillate still smells clean; late runnings turn flat and stewed and will spoil the whole collection if blended in.
- EquipmentA copper or glass alembic is the proper apparatus. Stovetop improvisations using a stockpot and an inverted lid full of ice give a weak, cloudy water; they are not the same thing.
- Yield and keepingExpect a modestly scented water rather than an oil; the text gives no yield. Refrigerate it and use within a few months, as unpreserved floral waters go musty.
Distilling rose water is one of the oldest surviving uses of the alembic, generally traced to the perfumers and physicians of the medieval Islamic world and carried into European stillrooms from there. By the time Mackenzie's compilation appeared in the early nineteenth century, the household still was still standard equipment in a well-run English house, used for flavouring waters, medicinal cordials and toilet preparations alike, and books of receipts routinely grouped them together under "Distillation." The problem this particular entry solves is seasonal: roses bloom for a few weeks, and a still is a slow business. Salting the petals down into a paste turns a fortnight's harvest into a year's supply of raw material, the same logic that put beans in brine and butter in crocks.