I tried out the 1841 Oil of Roses recipe. It’s a Victorian recipe for rose infused oil. You’ll only need two ingredients for this homemade rose oil: rose petals and oil.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces fresh organic roses (barely opened)
• 16 ounces olive oil
• jar with lid

The recipe says to pound rose petals and oil together in a mortar. But I think it’s easier to pound the rose petals first, and add the oil later.

Now you can either let the rose oil steep for some days in a warm place, or use the quicker heat method: Preheat the oven to 50°C/ 120°F, turn off the heat, then put the jar with the oil into the oven. Let it remain in the oven for about 3 hours.

Then strain the oil through a sieve.

This Victorian oil of roses doesn’t smell of roses at all! I find it has a strange, musty smell. I liked the rose water, which I also made that day, better.

Because I gathered more rose petals than I needed, I dried some of them.