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.
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hi babs
i just pop about couple teaspoons of dried sage or a good few sprigs of fresh into the 1lb jar (basically a good layer on bottom of jar)and pour jelly on. seal and allow to cool a bit then shake well and finish cooling upside down. this means the flavouring is on the bottom or middle of jar so get flavour to end of jelly not just on top.
this quantity works well with all flavours but chillies can be hot so up to your own taste.
you can add the flavour when jelly comes to boil i just do it in jars as it allows me to mix and match the same batch of jelly. i experiment every time with new flavours some i love and some i hate. have just tried quince and mint and it is great.
Hi Saiorse
Thanks for suggestions.
approx how much sage and added to rowan berries when?
just love rose hip syrup and jelly. have made 10 pints of syrup and 12lbs of jelly today. the jelly is fantastic with chilli as accompianment for meats or cheeses also tastes great with strawberries.
for all wondering about other fruits/berries to make into jelly if you cover fruit with water and boil till soft then leave till cool and strain through muslin. use 1lb sugar to 1pt juice and if low in pectin use bottled pectin as per amounts on bottle.boil for 10 mins and do the crinkle test every 5 mins till set is achieved. this is my recipe for all jellies and has never let me down. i also flavour them with various herbs and spices my favourites being quince with star anise and rosehip with lavender or lemon balm.mind you rowan and sage is pretty good too.
thanks for this great site there are so many ideas on it.
Hi Sally
If you look at the comments above yours, Eric made it using honey and unrefined sugar. I don’t know the honey sugar weight equivalent – perhaps Google can help?
Has anyone tried it using honey? How much honey compared to sugar should you use? xx
Hello Sarah
I’m going to be harvesting my rosehips soon too. Somewhere in the barn I have a flagon of rose hip wine – very delicate.
Love to hear what the rosehip vodka tastes like.
Made some Rosehip Syrup over the weekend and it’s delicious :-). Just about to try some with homemade yoghurt but up till now we have been road testing the spoonful a day to see if it helps our creaky joints, as some people have suggested. Thanks for the recipe.
Rosehip Jelly/Jam to follow this weekend and probably some Rosehip Vodka too. Can you tell we’ve got thousands of the things lol
Hello Eric
I’m going to make rosehip syrup mext week and will give your method a go – thank you.
HI, i recently made Rosehip syrup using honey and unrefined sugar without any problems and its a whole different taste,cant leave it alone.
Hi Brynhildur
Thank you so much for leaving this tip!