Rose Flower Water - Morocco

Essential Pantry Rose Flower Water - 3.0 oz - Morocco

Rose flower water is, to put it simply, a distillation of rose petals. It has the intense perfumelike flavor and fragrance of its source. Rose water has been a popular flavoring for millennia in the cuisines of North Africa, Middle East, India, and China. In fact, Morocco is especially known for its fields of roses that are used to produce some of the most fragrant rose water available - indeed, some "French" rose water is produced in Morocco.

Exotic as Moroccan rose water seems today, many people forget that it was a common and popular flavoring in this country as well, until vanilla extract became readily available a century ago. Until that, lemon and rose water were used to flavor baked goods, which were often made with ingredients like pork fat and maple sugar (cheaper and easier to obtain than butter and white sugar) -- strong flavors that needed the strong scents of rose or lemon.

Moroccan Rose Water for Food: Suggested Uses
A few drops streaked through cream, crème fraîche, custards, creamed rice puddings, ice cream, baked semolina sweets (popular in Morocco and throughout North Africa), fruit fools, sugar syrups, and fruit salads add an element of surprise. It's divine incorporated into sweet Middle Eastern pastries, and a little swirled through Khoshaf, a salad of dried fruit, pistachio nuts and almonds, is heavenly. It is also used in numerous savory dishes.

The trick with both orange blossom water and rose flower water is to use very little, to give the merest hint of fragrance.

About Rose Flower Water
As early as the third century, essences were made from rose petals using fairly crude methods. It wasn't until the 10th century that Avicenna, an Arab physician, discovered how to extract the essential oil from the flowers and invented rosewater proper. Its popularity with food quickly spread throughout Europe and made its way into both sweet and savory dishes, many of which are still popular today.

Rose water, called "ma ward" in Morocco, and the finest rosebuds are grown on the high central plains of the Dades Valley, and then distilled nearby, usually in El Kelaa des Mgouna. The result is a fragrant elixure with almost no taste.
THIS PRODUCT IS PACKAGED IN A FACILITY THAT ALSO HANDLES WHEAT FLOUR, SOY FLOUR, TREE NUTS, PEANUTS, CHOCOLATE (MILK), AND OTHER ALLERGENS