Rose geranium

Géranium rosat

What it is

It is not a geranium at all but a Pelargonium from the Cape, grown on Réunion since the nineteenth century for an oil the perfume trade still calls geranium bourbon. Its leaf carries geraniol and citronellol, two of the compounds in rose oil, which is how a handful of leaves reads as roses at a fraction of the price.

In the kitchen

Lay three or four leaves in the bottom of a cake tin before the batter, or infuse them twenty minutes in warm cream and lift them out. Left sitting in hot syrup they turn metallic inside an hour.

Goes with

Raspberry Blackberry Cream Peach Honey Lychee Apricot White chocolate

In season alongside

Bergeron apricot Apricot Bell pepper Blueberry Cantaloupe melon Rosehip

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