Rowan Jelly
Cheryl L. Perkins
I've come across some references to rowan jelly. This interested me,
because the trees are very common here, and I'd always believed that the
fruit were not edible. I've had a look around, and have come across only
one recipe, and some references to it in prepared form to be used with
meat, and in recreations of historical meals.
Does anyone have a good recipe? And is it made with the berries from
ordinary rowan/dogberry/mountain ash trees, or are there special varieties
of the tree?
Cheryl
--
Cheryl Perkins
cper...@stemnet.nf.ca
Alf Christophersen
Perkins) wrote:
>Does anyone have a good recipe? And is it made with the berries from
>ordinary rowan/dogberry/mountain ash trees, or are there special varieties
>of the tree?
Depends on what you mean by rowan tree. If rowan tree in Canada is the
same as over here (that is, it is an imported tree from Europe as it
is an old world tree, Sorbus aucuparia). It seems like American
Mountain ash (Pyrus americana) is not the same tree as European
Mountain ash (as is the same as our rowan tree, sorbus aucuparia) It
seems that Pyrus (Sorbus) americana has other virtues (described by
Mrs. Grieve) so I wouldn't have used those berries for jam or jellies.
Up here we let the berries freeze before using them for jellies and
jams or put them in the freezer for a day or too before using them if
we must pick them before first night of frost.
t...@thegnome.hpl.hp.com
Inspired by "Food in England" by Dorothy Hartley, pub 1952-ish, I used
to make it as a kid. From memory it was 1/4 rowan berries, 3/4 crab
apples, heat and strain, then add sufficient sugar to make a jelly.
Excellent with all forms of roast meat. I want to make some with my
daughter this year; all I've got to do is to find a tree that is not
too close to a road.
Yes, the berries are inedible: incredibly astringent, like sloes. But
I've seen blackbirds eat so many that they fly as if they are drunk.
|Cheryl
|--
|Cheryl Perkins
|cper...@stemnet.nf.ca
--
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Roger Whitehead
> Thank you. Now, all I have to do is to find my book of local trees and
> bushes and find the proper name of ours.
I think you'll find that American mountainash is now clasified as Sorbus
americana, not Pyrus. As Alf says, the European Rowan is Sorbus
aucuparia.
Regards,
Roger
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Roger Whitehead,
Oxted, Surrey, England
Kathleen
Perkins) wrote:
>Does anyone have a good recipe? And is it made with the berries from
>ordinary rowan/dogberry/mountain ash trees, or are there special varieties
>of the tree?
Jelly recipe taken from Roger Phillips "Wild Food" using Sorbus
aucuparia.
Boil 2 lb peeled, cored, sliced apples in2 pints water for 20 mins.
Add 3lb rowan berries and simmer to a pulp. Strain through jelly bag
and using 1 lb sugar ( white or light brown according to taste) to
each pint of juice., first boil juice for 10 mins then add sugar and
boil for another 10 mins till setting point.
I haven'rt tried it but I have made his recipe for Rowan Wine and that
worked well.
He also says that the juice of freshly squeezed rowans can be used in
gin in place of angustura bitters. The use of rowan berries for
alcoholic drinks has a long history associated with the Celts. the
Scots distilled it into spirit, the Irish used it to flavour drinks,
particularly mead and the Welsh used top brew an ale.
Kathleen
rich...@tig.com.au
The British firm of Baxters ('makers of Scotland's finest preserves', or
some such claim) produce a rowan jelly. I find it so stripped of the
essential rowan flavour as to be thoroughly disappointing.
Richard
In article <8nsr3r$20p$1...@coranto.ucs.mun.ca>,
cper...@stemnet.nf.ca (Cheryl L. Perkins) wrote:
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
bogus address
> I think you'll find that American mountainash is now clasified as
> Sorbus americana, not Pyrus. As Alf says, the European Rowan is
> Sorbus aucuparia.
Whitebeam works just as well as rowan for making jelly. A bit more
tannic and somewhat darker but basically the same flavour. So the
American mountain ash ought to work perfectly well, all these are
closely related.
I've never heard here of the idea Alf mentioned from Scandinavia,
picking them only after frost or freezing. I've never seen any kind
of alien life in a rowan or whitebeam berry, the sorbic acid must be
a darn good insecticide.
I made a mass of rowan jelly a few years ago (from a couple of
rucksackfuls of rowan berries), using the recipe in F. Marian
McNeill's "The Scots Kitchen", I think. Then I discovered that
large amounts of tannins or anthocyanins give me RSI-like muscle
pain so I couldn't eat it. Bugger.
========> Email to "jc" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce. <========
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html food intolerance data and recipes,
freeware logic fonts for the Macintosh, and Scots traditional music resources
Cheryl L. Perkins
: Depends on what you mean by rowan tree. If rowan tree in Canada is the
: same as over here (that is, it is an imported tree from Europe as it
: is an old world tree, Sorbus aucuparia). It seems like American
: Mountain ash (Pyrus americana) is not the same tree as European
: Mountain ash (as is the same as our rowan tree, sorbus aucuparia) It
: seems that Pyrus (Sorbus) americana has other virtues (described by
: Mrs. Grieve) so I wouldn't have used those berries for jam or jellies.
Thank you. Now, all I have to do is to find my book of local trees and
bushes and find the proper name of ours.
: Up here we let the berries freeze before using them for jellies and
: jams or put them in the freezer for a day or too before using them if
: we must pick them before first night of frost.
Do they get worms? We always pick partridgeberries after the first frost,
and I was always told it was necessary because they are infested with
worms, which are killed off by the frost. Of course, that might just be
tradition.
Alf Christophersen
wrote:
>I've never heard here of the idea Alf mentioned from Scandinavia,
>picking them only after frost or freezing. I've never seen any kind
>of alien life in a rowan or whitebeam berry, the sorbic acid must be
>a darn good insecticide.
The idea of frost it to remove the bitterness and make them sweeter
(the glycoside is split into sugar and alkaloids)
By the way, you don't have rowan moth over there ??
This year is the very first year since the first memory of rowan trees
I have (about 45 year or so or perhaps a few more) that there is
absolutely no rowan moth attacks on the berries. Wonder what ahs
happened to them. Normally they attack apples if there is no rowan
flowers and berries, but this year neither is attacked and the berries
are really big this year. Never seen such rowan berries. Almost 1 cm
in diameter. Normally they are dry and small and full of rowan moth
worms. I think to pick about september 5. to be sure to have some for
myself and not only for the birds.
I could have picked them today, but do not have time this time :-(
Roger Whitehead
> By the way, you don't have rowan moth over there ??
I wonder if you mean /Argyresthia conjugella/, Apple Fruit Moth. I
don't think we normally get that in Britain, although I believe it was
sighted in Shetland. So far as I know, the only caterpillar that feeds
on Rowan fruits in Britain is the Welsh Wave, /Venusia cambrica/. There
is a gall causer but that's a midge, /Contarinia floriperda/.
Alf Christophersen
<r...@office-futures.com> wrote:
>I wonder if you mean /Argyresthia conjugella/, Apple Fruit Moth. I
>don't think we normally get that in Britain, although I believe it was
Yes, it is Argyresthia conjugella which normally feed on rowan
berries, but if they are lacking, they feed on apples.
Sandi Spires
wines are also picked after frost?
Alf Christophersen wrote:
> On 22 Aug 2000 23:39:56 GMT, bo...@purr.demon.co.uk (bogus address)
> wrote:
...
> The idea of frost it to remove the bitterness and make them sweeter
> (the glycoside is split into sugar and alkaloids)
...
--
cheers, --Sandi ............................
sandi @ WorldControl
............................
Gary Allen
Sandi Spires <Sa...@NoSpam.org> wrote:
> Interesting. Do you know if that is why the grapes for ice
> wines are also picked after frost?
IIRC, allowing the grapes to freeze separates some of the water from the
juice... essentially raising its sugar content.
--
Gary Allen, The Culinary Institute of America
"The Resource Guide for Food Writers" http://www.foodbooks.com/
Barrie Mather
There is a recipe for Rowan Jelly in' The Cordon Bleu book of jams,
preserves and pickles." Ch atto and windus
Rosemary Hume and Muriel Downes. 1960. I haven't used it for a long
time, but my memory is of a clear, coherent, tart jelly.
You may run into trouble making sure you have the right sort of tree
because of the propensity homesick migrants have to call a tree after
something like it from home. Nurserymen do the same from commercial
motives. Make sure your fruit is clearly identified.
Barrie