Rosatum

the rose wine of the Roman table: fresh petals stripped of their bitter white heels, steeped in wine in a linen bag for three changes over three weeks, then honeyed and strained for the banquet

Origin: Italy

From the journey of Rose.

No society has consumed roses on the Roman scale. Petals were strewn across banqueting floors by the cartload, imported out of season from Egypt at ruinous cost, worn as garlands at every feast, and hung above the table, where a rose suspended over the diners marked what was said beneath it as confidential and gave Latin the phrase sub rosa. Rosatum is the drinking end of that culture, and the recipe survives in the collection that goes under the name of Apicius, where it sits beside its violet counterpart, violacium, at the head of the book on aperitifs. The method described is careful and specifically insists on stripping the white heel from the base of each petal, which is bitter and would spoil the wine, and on steeping the petals in a linen bag through three separate changes over as many weeks, so that the perfume accumulates without the vegetal taste of stewed flowers. Honey went in at the end. It was drunk as an appetiser, the mulsum family of honeyed wines being the standard opening of a Roman meal. Almost none of this survived the empire: Italy has no living rose cuisine, and what Rome actually passed on was the plant itself, Rosa gallica, left growing in the villa gardens and monastery cloisters of Gaul and Britain.

Ingredients

Rosatum

1.5 litre dry white wine, light and unoaked
300 g fresh scented rose petals, unsprayed and food-safe (about 3 large handfuls per steeping, 3 steepings)
120 g clear honey, or to taste

Equipment

1 piece clean linen or muslin, and kitchen string

Method

Pick the roses in the morning when they are newly open and at their most fragrant. Pull the petals free and, with scissors or a fingernail, trim away the small white heel at the base of each one.
Tie a third of the petals loosely into a square of linen or muslin, making a bag with room for the wine to move through it. Submerge the bag in the wine in a clean jar, seal, and leave in a cool dark place for 7 days.
After 7 days lift out and discard the spent bag, tie up a fresh third of the petals, and return it to the same wine for another 7 days. Repeat once more with the last of the petals.
After the third steeping, remove the bag and stir in the honey until it has entirely dissolved. Taste as you go and stop whilst the wine is still recognisably wine rather than syrup.
Strain through muslin into clean bottles and refrigerate. Serve cold in small quantities as an aperitif, as the Romans did before a meal.

Notes

Use only roses you know to be unsprayed and food-safe; florist roses are routinely treated and are not edible. The most fragrant old varieties, damask and gallica above all, give far more than modern hybrid teas, which have often been bred for form and vase life at the cost of scent. Apicius gives the same method for violets, and adds that those without roses to hand may use fresh citrus leaves for a similar effect. The result is a curiosity rather than an everyday drink, and it is best understood as a historical reconstruction: pale gold, aromatic, and sweeter than a modern palate expects. A dry rosé in place of the white gives a prettier colour and is not authentic, though it is pleasant.

The Gastrographer

Name: Rosatum
Prep time: 40 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1.5 litre dry white wine, light and unoaked; 300 g fresh scented rose petals, unsprayed and food-safe (about 3 large handfuls per steeping, 3 steepings); 120 g clear honey, or to taste; 1 piece clean linen or muslin, and kitchen string

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control