Katey’s Rosehip Syrup recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cordials and Syrups | 224 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
Hello there,
Many thanks for the recipe – just trying it out.
One question – excuse me for being dense. When you say ‘Pour extracted liquid into…’, do you mean the juice extracted from both strains? Or do you discard the juice from the first pass? I also have a recipe from a Ministry of Defence 1943 pamphlet (reprinted in ‘Food for Free’) and it’s just as unclear!
Many thanks,
Dan
I read in the Daily Mail Rose hips were good for arthritic pain as I have had hip pain since March I made some of your syrup. After three days yes only three days the constant pain completely dissapeared. I can now run up stairs again
Thanks for the tips on storage
First made the comment in 2008(how time flies)It is now 2014 still out of pain I make about 10 litres.to last a year
I just made some rosehip syrup and it is gorgeous but none of my rosehips were soft so don’t worry about that the sugar sweetens them up. Can’t wait until I make some pancakes tomorrow and the tip about dizzling it over port yummy!!
Hi Jo
Cut the hips up before you start to cook them or alternately, try putting them in the freezer overnight, letting them thaw and then cooking as usual. I read about this last year regarding Sloes, as they also need a frost to soften them. It worked marvelously as the sloes softened up and the gin is gorgeous!!!! As I couldn’t get any Damsons this year, I used the ones that I had put in the freezer last year for my jam and that has been a success! Let us all know if this works on the Rosehips.Good Luck!
I am longing to make rosehip syrup and although we have had a frost all the hips around here are still very hard. When will they become soft or can I make the syrup when they are still hard without boiling for too long to soften?
Hi again
correction 5kg should read 5lb
Hi
I picked 5kg of rose hips yesterday and simmered till soft, crushed them with potato masher, then drained overnight and ended up with 1 pint of quite thick juice. This is a first for me so do not know if this is the usual output, but it certainly looks powerful juice to me.
I use sterilised (rinse them out with boiling water from the kettle, be careful and use a tea towel to hold the containers), 1 pt opaque plastic milk bottles from Tesco for various fruit juices and keep them in the freezer till required for jellies etc. I also make approx 20 litres elderberry cordial and keep that in the same way. No problems so far and the cordial is consumed long before we can make some more the next year, and never any complaints of the quality, rather it is “is there any more?”.
Once open the cordial is kept in the fridge and will last in there for a few weeks.
Hi Kev
Thanks for the idea of using honey. Like the suggestion of adding sage or lavender!
Hello Primrose
Thanks for this and all your suggestions. I’ve never made rowanberry jelly so can’t help you. Thinking about it they might be good in wine.
Hi Rose
I agree with Primrose. A cool cupboard and then into the fridge once opened. You need to drink it within a couple of weeks once opened.
Hi Primrose
Great ideas, thank you!
Hi Matt
Great idea. Thanks for taking the time to share. Glad that you are enjoying the site.
Hi
Regards bottles:
Carlsberg 275ml bottles are a good size for syrups. I buy the silver branded Carlsberg which i think is called Export as this is the better fit for the corks I buy. I get corks from my local Homebrew shop, East Grinstead Homebrew in Lingfield. Look up home brewing or beer / wine making in your yellow pages.
It worked out cheaper buying Carlsberg, often on offer at the supermarket, than the empty bottles from the homebrew shop.
Mostly my sealing works, hot bottles from the oven and cork them up. About 1 in 10 to 15 gets a little mould on the top.
Thanks for the super site.