Rose hips have 20x the amount of vitamin C than oranges. My mother always made and jarred rose hip jelly with no added acid. I can't imagine that more acid would be needed. I never get enough to make for long term storage, so I just keep in the refrigerator. Keeps fine for me for at least 6 months.

Changing the topic a bit, how/when do you harvest rose hips? We seen some huge ones somewhere this last week.

You have to wait until they are fully ripe. Turn bright orange or red and a little soft when pressed. Shriveled ones should be left on the bush for the birds. They are sweeter if left until after the first frost.

Teach me more, are they just on roses, or I'm thinking wrong. We have some multiflora roses, would they work?

I never heard of hips on other plants and wouldn't know if they were safe to eat if I did see one. I would imagine that the ones a multiflora roses would be okay, but they are so small and the seed so big that it wouldn't be worth the trouble IMO. The ones I use are usually about the size of a cherry tomato. My mom had a beautiful rose garden which was why she was able to harvest a lot. I don't have access to that many. I pick them when I see them and freeze them until I have enough to make a jar or two of jelly. This is the only "fruit" that I like as a jelly rather than a jam. Actually, now that I think of it, I have never tried jam. Just doing it the way Mom always did.

Any kind of roses, and just roses. Though they are related to apples and pears :).

The hips are edible raw, so you can taste them to see if they are ripe and if you like the flavor from a particular variety. Cut them open and scrape out the seeds and fuzzy stuff, or nibble carefully at the outside of the hip. It's just the outer layer that is for eating.

Huge hips are probably rugosa roses or a tame variety. And they can be delicious! Juicy and fruity. They are what I am growing :).

I'm hoping to hear from Carol of Dave on safety.

I wish I could remember where we seen the huge ones, we were driving around and don't remember where all we went.

Marla

I'm so excited! I bought 4 rose bushes about six years ago that were labeled "tea roses." Much to my dismay, they aren't tea roses at all but became these huge crazy wild roses bushes. I was going to pull them out last year, but I'm so glad I didn't. I have a ton of rose hips! Can't wait to see if a recipe gets posted, I'm going to try this!

Here are a couple of recipes I have been looking at:

Rosehip Jelly Ingredients

2 quarts rose hips
1 1/2 quarts water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 package SureJell pectin
1/4 teaspoon butter
3 1/2 cups sugar

6 8-ounce canning jars and fresh lids

Method

1 Rinse the rose hips thoroughly. Cut off the scraggly ends and discard.

2 Place rose hips in a large pot. Add 1 1/2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour (or longer), until rose hips are soft and mashable.

3 Use a potato masher to mash up the rose hips into a rough purée. Set up a jelly bag, or a large very fine mesh strainer, or 4 layers of cheesecloth over a bowl or large pot. Transfer the rose hip mixture into the jelly bag/strainer/cheesecloth. Let strain into the bowl for at least an hour. Squeeze the jelly bag or cheesecloth to get more remaining juice out.

4 Measure the juice. You will need 3 cups of juice for this recipe, so if you have less than 3 cups, add more water to the mixture (you can also add some boiling water to the jelly bag if you still have it set up, allowing more liquid to drain out).

6 Place 3 cups of the rose hip juice in a large, wide pot. Add the lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil, dissolving all of the pectin. Add the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the butter. Bring to a hard boil (one that you can not reduce by stirring). The mixture will bubble up considerably. Boil for exactly one minute. Then remove from heat and pour off into prepared canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace from the rim.

Another has similar instructions, but a different ratio of ingredients:

4 quarts ripe rose hips
2 quarts water
1 package pectin crystals
5 cups sugar
1/2 cup lem

No water bath needed?

Yes, I am sure it needs a water bath if you want to seal the jars and not refrigerate!

There were canning instructions, but I didn't consider them safe so I edited them out.

I meant to get rid of the butter, for the same reason, but missed it. Squinting at my phone screen outdoors in the sun while at work...

My main reason for posting here was to ask people's thoughts on canning. But maybe people fear liability? Would it be better if I DID post the directions and folks could critique them? Basically they say a bunch of wrong stuff, and also to do BWB for 10 minutes.

According to one Turkish source the pH is between 3.3 - 4.4 so apparently they are acid enough.

Additionally the high level of sugar in a traditional preserve will contribute to safety. So I wouldn't worry.

I have a feeling lemon juice may have something to do with the acid/pectin balance (in a traditional preserve without commercial pectin) but I have no idea of the natural pectin level of rose hips. (And of course lemon contributes to flavor.)

Carol

Thank you, Carol!!

So, you mean I cannot leave out the lemon juice if I want to make it without pectin?

I've made it without commercial pectin, but I did use some apple in it as well as lemon juice to add some natural pectin. It was still a soft set, but very good. Adding the apple allowed me to reduce the lemon juice (I used the juice from one lemon, which was probably about 3 tablespoons). I thought 1/2 cup would be way too lemony and overpower the taste of the rose hips.

This recipe is from the University of Minnesota?Extension. It is similar to what I do except I just use a 2:1 ratio of sugar to juice and half the amount of pectin. It uses no apple or lemon juice.
Rose hip jelly made from wild fruit

By Isabel D. Wolf and William Schafer
Revised 2011

Jelly is made from fruit juice and sugar. A gel structure will be achieved only if the mixture contains sufficient pectin. Often commercial pectin will be added to obtain this desired structure. Rose hips should be picked after the first killing frost for best flavor and jelling. This jelly is a good source of Vitamin C.

Extraction of juice from the fruit is the first step in the preparation of fruit jelly.

When extracting juice for pectin-added jelly use ripe rose hips.
Remove blossom remnants and stems from rose hips.
Wash the in cool running water.
Add water to cover the rose hips.
Bring to a boil in a covered stainless steel or enamel kettle and then simmer for 15 minutes, or until soft.
Cool and strain through cheesecloth or a damp jelly bag.
One pound of rose hips will give close to 2 cups juice.
Rose hip jelly recipe

4 cups rose hip juice
7 1/2 cups sugar
1 box (2 pouches) liquid pectin
Measure juice and stir in sugar. Place on high heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a full, rolling boil. Add the liquid pectin and heat to a full boil. Boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat; Skim off foam. Pour jelly into hot, sterilized half-pint jars to 1/4 inch of top and seal with two-piece canning lids.* Process in a boiling water bath for 6 minutes (10 minutes for cold, unsterile jars).

P.S. I've noticed a lot of people posting that they want to make jelly or jam without the use of pectin. What is the concern about pectin?

the butter is added to prevent some of the foaming. I've used it in almost all of my jellies and jams, it not a bunch, barely a pat.

Some people are concerned about how commercial pectin is made, but I'm still using it. So much easier than making the homemade pectin. I've only tried to make the homemade kind one time without success. I think my apples were too ripe, I'll have to try again earlier in the year.

Marla

The recipe I have for a traditional rose hip preserve calls for orange and lemon, no commercial pectin, and results in a syrup or soft-set, so I'm assuming they're low in natural pectin.

Carol

Really no concern about pectin itself. Some of us prefer to not use commercial pectin. Me personally, I prefer a softer set and enjoy the "challenge" of making jam and jelly without it.

Thank you everyone for the recipes and ideas! It's neat to find out that so many people make rose hip preserves :).

And I only asked about making without pectin because I didn't have any yesterday :). But I do use it pretty rarely -- I, too, like a softer set, and simplicity.

I wonder if lemon juice contributes to color clarity? I made kudzu jelly once and the tea you steep with the purple flowers comes out looking like gray wash water. But once you add the lemon juice, it turns this beautiful purple color. And it stays purple then. Ahh... chemistry. :-)

Turns out I didn't get as many rose hips as I hoped. And I had a lot of apples, so I followed this youtube video. Except I had less rose hips. I also added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and water bathed for 10 minutes. Who knows if it will turn out? We shall see! It seemed to set up on a saucer. How soon will I know if it set properly? In the morning?

Here is a link that might be useful: rosehip jelly

I have started mine :).

I used lyndapaz's directions, and only cooked them until soft, not an hour like the recipe I posted said. I figured this would preserve more of the vitamin C.

I boiled them for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, then let them cool, then put them in an electric chopper, then brought to a boil again a few hours later. Now the mush is draining in a wire mesh coffee filter, in the fridge overnight.

I got a box of pomona pectin in case I want it. I also went out in the alley and picked some crabapple-like items, which I am making pectin from. Just the water they are simmering in is a bit thick, so I think is a good sign.

> I made kudzu jelly once and the tea you steep with the purple flowers comes out looking like gray wash water. But once you add the lemon juice, it turns this beautiful purple color. And it stays purple then. Ahh... chemistry. :-)

That is super-cool!

Well, I made the jelly. Or possibly syrup.

I was very tempted to make the marmalade version, and even went so far as to slice up the orange. But then I taste-tested the rose hip juice plus my homemade apple pectin, and decided I liked that. And I had no other use for the homemade pectin :).

(I made the pectin out of teeny apples, about 3/8" diameter, that grow in my alley. Ornamental or rootstock, I guess. Red. First time I have done that. I simmered them for a while, then put in blender, then simmered some more hours, then filtered.)

I ended up with about 2/3 rose hip juice and 1/3 apple juice, about a quart total. I added some sugar and boiled it to thicken.

It got kind of thick, but not jelling stage, and then it seemed to stop. I didn't want to boil it forever and kill all the vitamin C, so I decided to add some Pomona pectin. But I didn't want to add beaucoup more sugar (it was already delicious) so I mixed the pectin with a BIT of sugar and put it in. Where it promptly formed clumps. Oops.

I filtered it again. By that point, the quart of juice had boiled down to about a cup and a half. So I thought, 'F*ck it' and put it in jars, BWB'd the full one for 10 minutes and put the other in the fridge. I ate the pectin jello lumps for a snack.

It was a ridiculous amount of work for one jar of jelly! Or maybe syrup. It IS very tasty, though, either way.

--

My recommendation for any who follow after me is, if you want to sweeten to taste and not use a set amount of sugar, don't mess around with homemade pectin or apples, and maybe not oranges either. Just use the Pomona from the get go :).

My first attempt failed too. I followed the youtube guy, who didn't use pectin, but mine came out even runnier than syrup. So tonight I reboiled it all and added a packet of liquid pectin. I think it will work this time because when I was getting to the bottom of the pot, it was already starting to thicken.

Mine is mostly apple, with only a little rose hips. I didn't collect nearly as much as I hoped. I used 5 pound granny smith apples and about 3 cups rose hips. It's tasty though, I hope I at least get syrup this time, if not jelly!

NilaJones 7b (My Page) on
Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 20:03

Posted by lyndapaz 6 (My Page) on
Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 23:28

Rose hips have 20x the amount of vitamin C than oranges. My mother always made and jarred rose hip jelly with no added acid.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That might be true BUT:

Cooking/heating vitamin C will/can destroy most oe even ll of it.
Vitamin C is fairly stable up around 160F. So when you cook any thing wit vitamin C(at 212F), it will be oxidized and gone. Unless you do it fast for just a few minutes.

So if you RALLY want the benefits of Rose Hip, You should use it fresh or heat it to just about 160F. Pressure cooking destroy most of the vitamins. That is one of the minuses of pressure canning.

Vitamine C

You wouldn't pressure cook rose hip jam.

Carol

You wouldn't pressure cook rose hip jam.

Carol
****************************************************
Even cooking on the stove, using BWB method for canning will destroy vitamin C. @ 160F and higher vitamin C is oxidized.

That is true, but most people would consider jam a treat to be consumed in small amounts, not a staple of their diet.

No one would regard jam as a significant source of essential nutrients.

For that benefit you'd have to look to entirely different uses of rose hips than the OP inquired about.

Carol

I did comment because it was mentioned that Rose Hips have 20x more vitamin C than orange juice ...

I only mentioned the amount of vitamin C because the OP was asking about the level of acidity and I thought that gave an indication that no added acid would be needed.
There are recipes for "freezer jams and jellies" that reguire no cooking of the juice, just added boiling water with pectin. This would probably retain more of the nutrients if made this way.

>There are recipes for "freezer jams and jellies" that reguire no cooking of the juice, just added boiling water with pectin. This would probably retain more of the nutrients if made this way.

Oh, that's a good idea!

I did mention that part of my problem was I didn't want to cook it very long, hoping to preserve some vitamin C.

It's not like it all breaks down instantly at 161 degrees, but time above that temp is not great for it.

Yes, I thought so too. I think I'll try that next time.

That might achieve both ends - greater retention of nutrients and more reliable results.

Carol

Hah, I googled 'nchfp rose hips', because it is that time again, and found this old thread I had forgotten about!

Too late to learn from my own mistakes documented here, though :-). But hopefully next time I will remember to look this up.

This year, I'm doing a different made up method, simmering the rose hips until soft and then mashing with a potato masher. Maybe I'll try some lemon or lime juice, like the recipes in this thread.

I'm not aiming for jelly, just syrup. That's what the previous batch ended up being, and it was so very tasty.

if I had looked up this thread in time, I think I would have tried the freezer jam version, putting the raw rose hips in the juicer. I had them in the freezer already, so they would be mushy enough to get pretty good juice with just the juicer, I imagine. But instead I am doing the cooking method.