Katey’s Rosehip Syrup recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cordials and Syrups | 225 comments
August rose hips in our garden
As a child this delight and a daily spoonful of rosehip syrup heralded the start of winter. At home we queued up, in order of age, as my mother doled out the syrup from a small bottle. She called it medicine. I’m sure that this is why it took me ages, as an adult, to consider trying rosehip syrup again. I discovered that homemade rosehip syrup is delicious and worth making. It is a good natural source of vitamin C. It also contains vitamins A, D and E, and antioxidants.
We have two large rose bushes growing on the east wall at the back of the cottage, that produce hundreds of hips each year. We use these to make apple and rosehip jelly in October. When the hips are softened by November frosts, we make syrup. Lots of it. We give a few bottles away to friends who are laid up with bad colds but most of our giant batch is guzzled by us throughout the winter. It tastes too good to be earmarked solely for the sick bed. Danny loves it stirred into creamy yoghurt or swirled over some home made vanilla ice cream. Somewhere in the barn, a demijohn of rosehip wine is still fermenting from last autumn.
If you don’t have roses in your garden there are lots of briar roses in the hedgerows. They are difficult to spot from a car so if you are somewhere rural and have half an hour to spare, it’s well worth walking or cycling along a footpath or a quiet country lane to see what you can find. Try and avoid busy roads as the fruit will have been exposed to exhaust fumes and nasties. Keep a couple of carrier bags in your coat pocket, just in case.
This recipe was given to me by my friend Katey. It is similar to the recipe given out by The Ministry of Food during WW2, although their’s has more sugar. She remembers being frogmarched to pick hips for rosehip syrup as a child. This didn’t put her off, she still makes it today.
Katey’s Rosehip Syrup recipe
Ingredients:
- 4.5 pts of water
- 2 lbs of rosehips
- 1lb of white granulated sugar
Method:
- There is no need to top and tail the rosehips if the liquid is going to be strained through a muslin bag. If you are using a steam juicer, pass the liquid through muslin – it will only take a few minutes.
- Bring 3 pts of water to the boil.
- Mince the rosehips through a course profile mincer (or food processor).
- Transfer the fruit into fast boiling water and bring to the boil again. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes.
- Pour through a sterilised jelly bag/or muslin square (how do I sterilise a jelly bag or muslin square? See Tips and tricks below) and allow the majority of the liquid to drip through.
- Return the pulp to the pan and add 1.5 pts of fresh boiling water and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes.
- Strain through the jelly bag again.
- Pour extracted liquid into a clean saucepan and boil to reduce the liquid to 1.5 pts.
- Add the sugar and boil rapidly fro another 5 minutes. Pour into hot sterile bottles and seal immediately. (How do I sterilise bottles? See Tips and tricks below).
Tips and tricks:
- Use small bottles (we use recycled vinegar bottles) as it only keeps for a week or so once opened. If you don’t want to use bottles the syrup can be frozen in cubes.
- How do I sterilise a jelly bag or muslin square?
Both can be scalded with boiling water. If you are using a clean muslin bag or square you can iron them with a hot iron. This also works with tea cloths.
- How do I sterilise bottles?
The sterilising method that we used is simple. Just before making the syrup, I quickly wash and rinse the bottles and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160? (140? fan-assisted). When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The bottles will stay warm for quite a while. sterilise the lids by boiling these for a few minutes in water.
Leave a reply
Hi Robin
Homemade syrups, jams, marmalade, jellies and cordials all contain a lot of sugar. I’m always surprised about how much sugar is needed! And I didn’t discover this until I started making these at home.
So Katie’s recipe is in a round about way extremely educational.
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.
Katie you are to be commended for the kindness of putting this up on the net. But I’m surprized and disappointed that intelligent people encourage others to use sugar so freely.
Get on the program. It’s poison. It’s action mimics alcohol. Ask any skilled bio-chemist to discuss the two and you have your eyes opened.
Gloria Swanson ran a one-man campaign against sugar back in the 20s; for the very reason that it rots everything in the body. Just have a look at the health of America today. It’s patently obvious that few read labels of what’s in their food!
Hi Katie
Because I only had large bottles When I open a new bottle I put half into ice trays. Drink the rest from the bottle then use three cubes per day
That way the large bottle does’t go off before I have drunk it.
My friend had some relief from pain but not complete relief
Barbara
Hi everyone,
wonderful site – thanks to all.
One question – is it ok to freeze the syrup? will it defrost ok?
Hi Primrose
All comments are god as they add to the knowledge base of the site! Thank you for taking the time and trouble to do so.
Hi Robert
It’s great poured over ice cream!
Hi Rose
It’s fine to use them when they are soft (loads of people leave them unil after the first frosts. They are bad when they go black.
Hello Barbara
This is such good news. Thank you for the update!
Just to let you all know I am still out of pain and back playing golf. I’ve picked loads of them and have the scars to show.I drink about four tablespoons a day. I am going to give a bottle to a friend who has severe pain in her fingers to see if it works. My pain was constant but not severe. Hers is severe. watch this space
Thanks Primrose and fn for your answers and suggestions….I just finished the one I stored in the fridge and am moving on to my second jar…now I wish I had been more diligent in picking more…LOL…can I still pick them when they are soft? How do I tell if they have gone bad? Are the really soft ones with some black hairs ok to use? Sorry for my ignorance but am really new to this syrup making business 🙂
P.S. while preparing them to be made into syrup…I used the gel like “flesh” of the rosehip to rub on the back of my hand…just for a couple of minutes then I washed it off…seems to have made my skin smoother…or maybe it’s just my obsession with rosehips..haha..anyone tried this before?
Hi fn
used your recipe (Katey’s)for rose hip syrup.
tastes great and am hoping winter colds now a thing of the past. Looking for other uses.
Thinking of adding to crab apple jelly, rose hip royale etc.
Any suggestions?
Hi fn
I have done Damsons in Vodka and they sure are excellent. I have also tried Blackberries in Gin too, but they went quite mushy and so I had to strain them several times to clear the liquid. I was appalled at the waste of good gin soaking into the clean tea towel I used ha ha!!!!
At the moment I am experimenting with the Sea Buckthorn in Gin…it has a strange scent to it, but I am awaiting the result, which will be a few more weeks yet!!
Thank you too for allowing me to comment. Free food and experimenting with it is something that I have done for quite a long time and I love to share my experiences.
I also read about Rosehips being good for arthritis and have read many articles about it. The only way to obtain it in the shops is via tablet form, so if we sufferers can get it for free, then go for it, I say!!
Hi Robert,
Great idea to use plastic bottles. Gets round the problem of sterilising and sealing the bottles very neatly if you have space in the freezer.
Hi Robert
Our recipe yields 1.5 pints of liquid before adding the sugar. Hope that your syrup turned out well.
Hi Jo
The syrup can be made with soft or hard rosehips.
Hi Primrose
Thanks for helping out with advice! Much appreciated.
I love damson gin! Damsons work well in vodka too.
Hello Emma
Great idea to drizzle the syrup over pancakes!
Hi Barbara
That’s brilliant news. How much are you taking each day?
Hi Dan
Use the liquid from the first and second extraction and reduce it all to 1.5 pints before adding the sugar.