Gulkand

the sun-cured rose preserve of India: petals layered with sugar in a glass jar and left in the sun for a fortnight until they collapse into a dark, sticky, intensely fragrant conserve

Origin: India

From the journey of Rose.

Gulkand is gul, rose, and qand, sugar, and it is exactly that and nothing else: petals and sugar, cured by the sun rather than cooked over a fire. The absence of heat is the whole distinction between it and a rose jam, and it is why gulkand keeps the raw scent of the living flower where a boiled preserve keeps only a memory of it. The petals used are those of Rosa damascena, and the finest are held to come from Pushkar in Rajasthan, where the fields around the lake are given over to the flower, and from the Chittoor and Kannauj districts. Its place in Indian life is as much medicinal as culinary. Ayurveda classifies gulkand as cooling, and it is eaten by the spoonful through the hot months as a tonic against heat, fatigue, mouth ulcers, and constipation, given to children, and stirred into warm milk at bedtime; and it is one of the fillings of meetha paan, the sweet betel-leaf parcel handed round at the end of a meal or a wedding. It is amongst the simplest preparations in this atlas and one of the most transformative: a jar of petals goes into the sun pale pink and dry, and comes out three weeks later almost black, glossy, and overwhelming.

Ingredients

  • 250 g fresh scented rose petals, unsprayed and food-safe (damask for preference), white heels trimmed
  • 250 g caster or unrefined cane sugar
  • 0.5 tsp green cardamom seeds, crushed (optional)
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (optional, traditional in the paan version)
  • 1 pinch saffron threads (optional)

Method

  1. Pick the roses early in the morning when they have newly opened and are at their most fragrant. Pull the petals free, trim off the small white heel at the base of each, and spread them on a cloth for an hour in the shade so any dew dries off. Do not wash them.
  2. Sterilise a wide-mouthed clear glass jar and dry it completely. Put in a layer of petals about two fingers deep, press it down, and cover with a layer of sugar. Repeat, alternating, until both are used, finishing with a thick layer of sugar.
  3. Add the cardamom, fennel, or saffron if you are using them, scattering them between layers. Close the jar and stand it in full direct sunlight for 15 to 20 days.
  4. Once a day, open the jar and stir the contents thoroughly with a clean, completely dry spoon, pressing the petals down into the syrup that gathers. The mixture will darken steadily from pink through red to a deep brown-black.
  5. The gulkand is ready when the sugar has entirely dissolved, the petals have collapsed and gone dark and glossy, and the whole is a thick sticky conserve with no loose crystals left. Seal and store in a cool dark cupboard.

Notes

Only heavily scented, unsprayed roses will do; florist roses are treated and are not edible, and modern hybrid teas bred for form rather than perfume give a dull result. Damask petals are the traditional choice and by some distance the best. Take a teaspoon on its own as a cooling tonic in hot weather, stir it into warm or cold milk, spread it very thinly on bread, fold it through thick yoghurt or shrikhand, or use it as a filling for meetha paan with fennel and desiccated coconut. It is also excellent swirled into kulfi and ice cream, and a spoonful thinned with hot water makes a quick rose tea. Unrefined cane sugar gives a darker, more caramel-scented gulkand; white sugar gives a cleaner, purely floral one.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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