Delicious Rose-Flavored Desserts

Book excerpt: Imagine a table laden with sweet dishes—cakes, puddings, creams, custards, jellies, candied fruits, marzipan, ice creams—molded into exotic forms, all flavored with roses and served as the final course of an elegant meal! In the Georgian era (1714–1830) rose-flavored treats were a mainstay in the homes of the well-to-do, who would create an entire table of sweets as a show of wealth and power. In Delicious Rose-Flavored Desserts, culinary historian Judy Polinsky explores the use of roses and rose water in Georgian cooking and baking. With a foreword by Clair Martin, Curator Emeritus of the Rose Garden at the Huntington Library and Gardens, this book is packed with information about the history of roses as a food flavoring and the benefits of consuming rose water, instructions on how to select roses by scent and rose family, and directions for how to prepare rosewater from your own roses, in addition to more than fifty recipes (or as the Georgians wrote, “receipts”). Unique in its structure, the book will feature the original eighteenth-century recipe along with the modern version. Polinsky tested each recipe first by hand and then retested using modern appliances, such as mixers and food processors. The reward is in the subtle blending and mixing of unexpected flavors to create wonderfully tasty treats. Whether your interest is in cooking, rose gardening, or history, using roses from your garden to re-create unusual recipes is an adventure and great fun! Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.