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Hi all,
Does anyone know how to make this? Can you use any hips? When should they be picked?
I have a climbing rose with loads of very red, but small hips on it so.....
Thanks
Caroline

Hi Caroline - found this recipe in one of my old books - here goes ....

2lb rosehips, 4 1/2 pints water, 1lb granulated sugar.
Trim stalks from rosehips and then mince the hips coarsely in a food processor or by hand. Put 3 pints of the water into a large stainless steel pan and bring tothe boil. Add the rosehips and boil gently for 15 mins. Let it coolf for another 15 mins then pour into a nylon sieve over a bowl. Reserve the juice and the pulp. Return the pulp to the pan add the remaining pint of water, bring to the boil and cook gently for 15 mins. Stir in the reserved juice then strain the mixed through a scalded jelly bag or a large sieve lined with a clean scalded (I think this is one that's just had boiling water poured over it!). Pour the strained juice into a stainless steel pan and boil gently until reduce to 1 1/2 pints. Add the sugar and stir until all dissolved then simmer for another 10 mins. As quickly as possible pour the hot syrup into small warm clean scew top bottles, filling them to within 1 1/2 inches of the tops. Screw the tops loosely onto the bottles. Stand the bottles spaced well apart on a trivet or piece of wood in a deep heavy pan. Fill the pan with cold water to just above the level of the syrup. Heat the water to sterilising point 77 degreesC (170 degrees F)and maintain that temperature for 30 minutes adjusting the heat as necessary. Using tongs remove the bottles from the pan and screw the tops on tightly. Wipe, label when cold. Store in a cool dark cupboard. Will keep for up to 2 months.

Sounds like a lot of work! but I remember Delrosa as a child!

Caroline
When I was a kid a wee while back, my dad used to make rosehip syrup and my brother, sister and I loved it - we got a spoonful every night - immediately after our Cod Liver Oil .
We used to pick rosehips from the wild (dog) roses from the hedges at the same time as we went brambling, and gathering rowan berries for the old man to work his magic on.

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Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Hi Caroline, I've found this recipe for rosehip wine: (not mrs beeton this time!)
2lb fresh rosehips
8oz raisins, hot washed and finely chopped
3lb sugar
6pts boiling water
wine yeast
1 teasp yeast nutrient
1 teasp citric acid
4 teasps grape tannin or a cup of strong tea
1 teasp pectin enzyme
campden tablets
1 teasp potassium sorbate

Sprinkle yeast granules into a cup of boiled tepid water, cover and leave to stand for about an hour. Rinse rosehips in a solution of 2 campden tablets to 1 3/4pts water. Drain and chop them coarsely. Place rosehips, raisins, sugar, yeast nutrient, citric acid and tannin and tea in a fermentation bin and pour over the boiling water. Stir well to dissolve the sugar, cover and leave to cool until lukewarm. Add activated yeast and pectin enzyme and cover again. Stir daily for 8 days then strain into a demi john and fit bung into airlock. Leave to stand until wine clears, then siphon off sediment into a clean demi-john adding 1 crushed campden tablet and the potassiym sorbate and top up with cold boiled water if necessary, to should of demi john. Bung tightly and leave for 3 months. Siphon into sterilised bottles, seal tightly and store in cool, dark place.
Aren't you glad you asked Caroline? Yet another long winded recipe!
Good luck!
dexterdog

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Thanks all for the recipes.
If I get the time I might give the syrup a go

This is a dead easy way to use them. Bung them in a pan with a few chopped up ( stalks ,skin, core and all) bramley or other sour apples. Cover with water and simmer for ages until the apples have turned to complete mush , mash the rosehips from time to time. Strain through a jelly bag if you have one or old pillowcase if you don't. Leave to drip overnight or longer.
One pound of sugar to every pint of juice. In a pan low heat until sugar melted then boil rapidly until it reaches setting point and ladle into warmed jam jars.
Rose hip jelly. Delicious.

I made some rose-hip wine once , that was dreadful, nearly as bad as the tomato wine, but that was a totaly different story.

My mother used to have this for us when we were children - diluted in water - why is it no longer available??

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I've collected a load of rosehips recently as I wanted to make the roesehip tart in the latest magazine issue. I gave up after about 10 minutes of topping and tailing and scraping out the seed inerds - it's so time consuming!

I've heard that you shouldn't eat the seedy pulpy insides of rosehip as they're a digestive irritant and very bad for you.

I've found two recipes for syrup - one says to top, tail and scrape and the other says to use them whole - both recipes say to strain through a jelly bag and so I'm wondering if by using a jelly bag you capture all the nasty bits that are an irritant?

I don't have a jelly bag so wondered what kind of fabric I can use instead - will a pillow case really do the trick?

Does anyone know of a quick and easy way to get rid of the insides of rosehips or do you have to stand for hours on end do what I did?

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Eskymo
I used a jelly bag - no nasties got through - and it's the same jelly bag used by my dad to make jellies and syrups when I was a kid - I suppose it's a sort of family heirloom - along with the giant jam kettle I inherited / borrowed at the same time.
Ascotts's sell them - not sure how much, but last a lifetime (or two!)

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Got loads of hips on the rosa rugosa - can you use those?

I don't think it matters what type of Rose. I picked mine from the hedgerows and I have no idea what type they are - I probably have a few different varieties.

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I was planning on going out on Saturday to pick whatever wild rose hips are about.
My mother in law uses an old, fine-mesh net curtain, which seems to work really well in place of a jelly bag. I thought I might use a pillowcase. Do I need to buy one of those frames for the dripping over night mallarky? (I'm hoping I might just be able to rig something up.)

I was thinking of just getting some material and using a metal coat hanger - shaping the coat hanger into a circle and securing the material around with pins and positioning this over my large preserving pan - not sure it'll work, but worth a try.

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