ATTAR OF ROSES

"Attar" is a rose petal oil. The damask rose varieties (Rosa damascena) are good for making attar. I'd heard that Rosa damascena trigintipetala is the most highly regarded variety for making potpourri and attar. But Patricia Wiley says the best is Rosa damascena bifera, the rose of Castile. Pure attar of roses is extracted from fresh petals. The finest potpourris are made by
spraying attar on dried, mixed petals and buds. Fill a large glass jar with rose petals, carefully separated from the rest of the plant. Add just enough water to cover them and let the jar set in the sun 2-3 days, bringing it indoors overnight. At the end of the
second or third day, small particles of yellow oil will be floating on the surface of the water. In the course of a week, they will have increased to a thin scum. The greenish-yellow scum is attar of roses. Take it up with a little cotton tied to the end of a stick,
and squeeze it into a small container. Or use a feather. On the commercial market, attar of roses is very pricey stuff, a valuable ingredient of perfumes. It takes a whole lot of roses to make even a tiny bit of attar: approximately 5 lb. of petals for 1 oz. of
oil!