Rose petals can add an intriguing scent and flavor to your cooking.

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Of Roses and Rosés

How to add some of the sweetest scent to your Valentine's Day dinner, plus some recommended sparkling rosés for your special dinner date

Laurie Woolever
Posted: February 6, 2007

On Valentine's Day, your sweetheart expects roses. You can blow a paycheck on a dozen red ones that will drop their petals by the weekend, or you can get creative and incorporate the sweetly intoxicating essence of roses into the year's most romantic meal.

Roses are available in several edible forms, from simple candied rose petals to a sweet and sticky jam made from roses. Gourmet markets, baking supply shops, Indian or Middle Eastern grocery stores and online retailers are all good sources for rose products.

"A lot of Indian desserts use or are garnished with rose syrup," says Melissa Walnock, the executive pastry chef at Tabla, an Indian-inflected fine dining restaurant in New York. Walnock has been working on a version of gulab jamun, a deep-fried milk curd dumpling served with the sweet syrup drizzled over it, but she says it's difficult: "Chef [Floyd Cardoz] is from India, and it's hard to make it exactly how he remembers it." Currently, Walnock's menu includes a pomegranate granité served with a Champagne and rose water foam and rose water macarons (meringue-based sandwich cookies), and a frozen chocolate mousse flavored with rose water (recipe here).

Here are a few simple rules from Walnock for using roses in your cooking and baking.

• Use only organic roses. Chemical insecticides and preservatives are not romantic. They're toxic. Online retailers sell dried organic petals by the pound; call around to florists and baking supply shops to track down fresh organic petals in your area.
• Choose the fullest, most intensely-colored roses available. Fuller blooms have more moisture, and therefore more flavor, says Walnock, and vibrant color equals vibrant taste.
• Snip off the bitter bits. Each rose petal has a small white area at its base where it was once attached to the whole flower. It is extremely bitter-tasting, and should be snipped off under cold running water before candying the petal.
• Don't overdo it. Add too much rose water or flavoring to a recipe and the whole thing will have a soapy aftertaste (and may end up reminding you of that ancient school librarian or museum docent who must have bathed in Tea Rose perfume). "I'll whisk it into a recipe tablespoon by tablespoon," says Walnock, "and as soon as I start to notice the aroma wafting out, I'll stop."
• Make roses part of an ensemble, not the leading player. Rose flavors harmonize nicely with red berries (try mixing a few tablespoons of rose jam into a cup of strawberry, raspberry or cherry jam) and can cut the mouthpuckering tartness of a cranberry sauce. Other classic pairings include lychees and chocolate. Avoid anything with a soft, mealy texture, like banana or pumpkin, which will completely mute the rose character without adding anything to the fruit or vegetable flavors.

There are a few ways to approach pairing wines with roses. You can choose to highlight the rose water in the chocolate mousse by pairing it with a light, sweet Brachetto D'Acqui, such as Castello Banfi's Rosa Regale, which has its own rose and red berry aromas. Walnock recommends pouring a dry white or sparkling rosé with rose-infused desserts that are not overtly sweet and do not contain chocolate, as she finds a sweet wine can amplify the rose's perfume in the mouth, thereby overpowering all of the other flavors.

Recently-rated sparkling rosés to pour for Valentine's Day are listed below. These food-friendly wines can be delightful on their own, as well as with a range of dishes for your main meal, from game birds to even heartier fare or cheese.