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Roses, Crystallized
Herbal Recipe
Ingredients and Instructions:
Gather roses on a dry day after the dew has evaporated. Before gathering roses, dissolve 2 ounces of gum arabic in 1/2 pint of water.
Separate the rose petals and spread them on dishes. Sprinkle them with the gum arabic solution, using as many petals as the solution will cover. Then spread them on sheets of waxed paper and sprinkle with castor sugar. Allow to dry for 24 hours.
Put 1 pound of loaf sugar and 1/2 pint of cold water into a pan, stirring until the sugar has melted, then boil fast to 250 degrees, or to the 'thread' degree. Keep the syrup well skimmed.
Place rose petals into shallow dishes and pour the syrup over. Leave them to soak for 24 hours, then spread them on wire trays and dry in a cool oven with the door ajar.
The syrup can be colored with food coloring to give the petals more color. Rose petals can also be used to flavor butter.
