🌹💐 DOG ROSE PETAL CHEONG 💐🌹

Cheong is a Korean method of using sugar and time generally to preserve fruit. I’ve used this method for many items and have loved the results. Noticing the cross-overs with other cultures like making fermented pine cone syrup like the traditional 🇮🇹 throat soothing syrup Mugolio at the moment.

I’ve been wanting to try the process with rose petals for a while since trying it with rosehips last year which was fantastic. Very keen to try and set this later in the year once it’s developed like a Turkish delight using the dog rose petals. A lot of the time heat is used to make syrups and a lot of flavour is changed or lost. That is why I love this method.

The dog rose / wild rose (Rosa canina) is a thorny climber that you’ll find working it’s way through much of the hedgerow growing as much as 3m high if it’s found enough support. It’s leaves grow on alternate sides of the stem and divide into toothed leaflets. It’s also affected by a gall called robins pin cushion which I did a video on towards the end of last year looking like Pom poms set amongst the leaves caused by a gall wasp.

Right now the flowers are showing off their 5 white and pink petals which have a nice delicate floral aroma. I’m looking for the the pollinated ones. This is easy to tell as the anther which is sat on top of many stamen will look brown. These will forming the rose-hip already (as shown) so I’m happy to gather these petals and leaving those not pollinated for the bees to do their thing. After pollination the petal will fall or turn brown.

Gathering a jar of the petals and adding the sugar (normally equal weight) is the most normal method but given water content of different ingredients I recommend heading over to @johnnykyunghwo for some other great inspiration and tips (loving the idea of a bay leaf cheong btw 👌🏽👌🏽)

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one over the next few weeks and will be using it on my flavour led foraging courses. Check the link in bio for those.