Wild Rugosa rose petal and hip jam

 

wild Rugosa rose hips

When I saw these rose hips in the wild, so big and beautiful, like giant cherry tomatoes, sort of shouting to me to make rose hip jam. I heard of rose hip jam but never made one, because rose hips are usually very small, until I saw these wild Rugosa rose hips in Ireland. 

 

Wild Rugosa rose

After googling to learn more about rose hip, I decided to split them open, remove the top hairy part, and put the rest in a pan. Rose hip is actually full of seeds, with just a thin layer of flesh, even for these giant ones. 

 

 

 

 

wild Rugosa rose hips after cooking in equal part of water

I cover them with water and bring to boil, until the flesh soften, around 15 minutes, press them a bit to break the structure. Leave to cool down and extract pectin from seeds. 

The next day, the bright orange paste is set, pass through a vegetable strainer or Kitchenaide to remove seeds.

wild Rugosa rose petals in sugar

 

The colour is beautiful but unfortunately rose hip has no special flavor or perfume, just mildly sour. Really not worth the effort of all the work, except that it is probably very nutritious.

 

Wild Rugosa rose petal and hip jam

 

Then I remember the wild rose petals collected last year that have been stored in sugar, it is ready to use. The sugar smelled of wild rose, the right thing to sweeten the rose hip jam. Best of both world, the perfume of rose petal combined with the thick pulp of rose hip, perfect.