Yes, you read it right! Jam made of peony petals!
Last week we had a tremendous storm one night and my only-just-opened white peonies got battered and several broke off. So I brought some of the flowers into the house for a vase, and the scent was heavenly!
Then I got thinking… if you can make rose-petal jelly, why not peony? And preserve that wonderful fragrance for an autumn teatime treat…
After googling a little, I found peonies are edible, but I could only find one recipe online (on an inactive blog: imperfecturbanfarm.com).
I tried it, and this was my adapted version:
- 3 cups petals, washed and shaken dry
- 3 cups boiling water
- 3 cups jam sugar (i.e. sugar with pectin in it)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp rose water
- Jam jars for up to 650ml
Pour the boiling water over the petals and leave to steep for 6 hours. Strain through a fine muslin cloth. Add lemon juice and rose water. Heat to boiling point, add sugar and cook on a rolling boil for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Fill your sterilised jam jars to the brim, and seal.
So far so good. The verdict as I licked the spoon: exactly as I had imagined; a little rosy but with the distinct aroma of peonies. Very tasty! Sweet and tart. Flowery. Scented. June in a jar! I could imagine this on toast with some tasty cheese and ripe autumn pears…
BUT…
… 24 hours later the jelly was still not set. Completely runny in fact! So I tried to rescue it by boiling it up again and adding some pectin and citric acid… A horrible mistake! It ruined the flavour! 😦
It looked so pretty, and here’s a picture of it in its runny state…
I think my best peonies are now losing their scent, so I will shelve this until next year and perhaps try again…
Or maybe someone will refine the recipe and let me know how it worked out… any jam experts out there?
😉
P.S. I’ll be posting some tried and tested (i.e. successful!) jam recipes in a few days!
Words and Herbs 