Like most perfume obsessives, we have quite a library of books – and August meant having some time to read them.
And in one old volume we’ve been leafing through – Elixirs of Life, by C.F. Leyel – there’s a wonderful chapter on roses. Now, we love dabbing rose on our pulse-points. Having it fragrance our homes… But Mrs.
Leyel also came up with this recipe for fragrant Rose Petal Sandwiches, which – on this first, sometimes gloomy day of ‘the new autumn term’ (for those of us heading back to the office), might make a change from a Prêt wrap…
She recommends: ‘Line a dish with rose petals, then place in it some butter wrapped in its own paper. Cover the whole with more rose petals, pressing them closely together until the dish is full. Put in a cool larder overnight. Then cut think slices of bread and spread them with the butter, and place fresh rose petals on top of the butter so that the edges of the petals show outside the sandwich.’ (NB Only non-sprayed roses should be used for this, naturally.)
Mrs. Leyel’s dainty tome also made us wistful to live in a time when, as she writes, ‘The Romans put roses in their wine and wreathed themselves with roses while they drank it. Cleopatra carpeted her rooms to a depth of several feet with roses, and rose petals were used for strewing generally because of their exquisite scent and their health-giving properties…’
Enjoy your scented sandwich.
And then, please, Instagram us the result…!
