Rose
Rosa × damascena · Edible flower
Top 10 pairings
Cooks prize rose petals for their intensely floral, faintly fruity flavour. A few fragrant kinds, above all the damask rose, are distilled into rosewater and rose oil or preserved as gulkand, jams and syrups.
Picking a good onedrag
Food-grade, just opened, headyBrowned, limp and musty
Shop freshEveryday bestPinch the bitter pale heel off each petal of a food-grown rose, then scatter on sweets or steep in syrup.
Where it's fromSold as food, unsprayed, in date
The petalsGood colour, outer ring relaxing
A petal in the handStill velvety, edge softening
Smell at the bloomSweet and rosy, but you lean in