Rose Petal Substitutes: Rose Water First, Then Other Flowers

Out of rose petals? If they’re there for flavor, reach for rose water, which is how rose usually gets into the kitchen anyway. Go easy with it. America’s Test Kitchen calls rose water intensely floral,¹ so start with a few drops. If the petals are there for looks, nothing replaces them except another edible flower, like petals from your own unsprayed roses, or violets.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

If rose petals are there for flavor

Rose water

Gernot Katzer notes that in the kitchen, rose normally shows up as an alcoholic extract or a water-based distillate, not as petals.²

Rose water tastes like the flower for a chemical reason. Katzer explains that 2-phenylethanol, characteristic of the fresh flower’s scent, collects in the rose water during distillation.²

Rose water is strong. America’s Test Kitchen calls it intensely floral and typically used quite sparingly.¹ When ATK tried it in place of vanilla, an equal swap was too intense for most tasters, and half the vanilla amount gave a subtler result.¹ Strength varies by brand, and no source we found measures by how much.

Ratio (Method): The Nigella.com team, flavoring jam with rose water, says to add it carefully, a few drops at a time.³ Do the same. Start with a few drops, stir, taste, and stop well short of where you think you’ll end up.

Add it late. The Nigella.com team says rose water tends to evaporate very quickly if it goes into very hot jam.³ That’s their kitchen observation, not a measurement, but it’s a good reason to add rose water off the heat.

For savory dishes. Katzer notes that rose water often gives a light, floral fragrance to Arabic and Iraqi rice dishes.² A few drops sprinkled over rice as it rests is a fair stand-in for petals cooked into the dish.

Lavender

Lavender is another flower that goes into drinks and sweets, but it doesn’t taste like rose. So use lavender only if you want a different floral note, not as a rose stand-in. The Herb Society of America notes it’s easier to add lavender as you go.⁴

Ratio (Method): Start with a quarter of the rose petal amount.

If rose petals are part of a spice blend

Rose is one ingredient among many in blends like Persian advieh, where Tina Wasserman uses dried rose petals,⁵ and Moroccan ras el hanout, where the Oxford Companion to Food says rosebuds are usually included.⁶

Ratio (Method): Mix the blend without the rose, cook the dish, and finish with a few drops of rose water if you miss the floral note. In a blend with several warm spices, you’ll notice the missing petals less than in a dish where rose leads.

If rose petals are there for color and decoration

On a cake, a bowl of yogurt or a plate of rice, petals are mostly there to look pretty, and rose water can’t help.

Petals from your own unsprayed roses

The New York Botanical Garden’s librarian says heirloom roses taste best and dark red varieties can taste too strong, and warns against eating roses that have been sprayed.⁷ The same source warns against eating flowers from florists or nurseries,⁷ so supermarket bouquets are out. The FDA lists rose buds, flowers and hips from four rose species, including Rosa damascena, among substances generally recognized as safe as natural extractives.⁸

Violets

The same NYBG list describes sweet violets as scented and used mainly in desserts.⁷ You’ll get a different color and a different scent, but they do the decorating job.

Ratio (Method): Go by eye. The NYBG advises against using large amounts of any edible flower at first.⁷

What isn’t known

• No source measures how much strength varies between brands of rose water.
• You’ll sometimes read that Islamic chemists discovered rose water in the Middle Ages, or that rose water keeps its flavor longer than petals. None of our sources support either claim.
• Rose hips sometimes get suggested as a rose petal substitute. The FDA lists them as generally recognized as safe,⁸ but we found no source comparing their flavor to rose petals’.
• Lilac sometimes gets suggested too. None of our sources, including the NYBG edible-flower list, cover it, so we don’t recommend it.

Related

• Rose petals
• Lavender, lavender substitutes and cooking with lavender
• Barberry and barberry substitutes
• Saffron