Strawberry and Rose Petal Jam: French Confiture Made Easy

August 1, 2025 Master Canner

French jam doesn’t have to be reserved for glass counters and gold-foiled lids. It doesn’t need to cost $30 a jar. Most definitely, it doesn’t need to be high in sugar. Our strawberry and rose petal jam feels luxurious, tastes homemade, and smells like a Parisian garden in June. It has real summer strawberries, real roses and real wow. It has all the elegance of a luxurious French confiture, minus the sky-high price tag.

Feel free to skip straight to the recipe, or hang out a bit for some handy tips, ingredient recommendations, and tricks to make this preserve truly exceptional. Promise, no grandma stories here!

Jump to Recipe

Folks, let’s be real: you didn’t need another regular jam. You needed this – a blooming showstopper of a preserve. Bright, soft, jammy, and laced with just enough floral perfume to make you feel like you’re nibbling toast in a Parisian garden. And boy, does this Strawberry and Rose Petal Jam recipe deliver!

How This Jam Came to Be

So there we were, mid-July, knee-deep in a jam season. The jars were lined up, the Raspberry Rose Petal Jam was cooling, and just as we were about to tuck the filled jars into the pantry, someone asked the question: “Why aren’t you putting rose petals in your other jam recipes?”

A fair point. After all, the fancy French confiture brands have been doing it for years. We are talking Fauchon. Christine Ferber. All those $30 jars that whisper “delicacy” and “European vacation”. Unfortunately, they also come with a “hope you like your jam with a side of root canal” amount of sugar. A “no-no” in our books and our kitchen.

So we tinkered, macerated and infused. We taste-tested and finally, we landed it. A real-deal strawberry & rose petal jam with lot of fruit and rose petals, less sugar, and zero chance of needing a bank loan to make a few jars . A little fancy, a little feral, and entirely homemade.

Tips and Tricks

Use the ripest strawberries you can find. Overripe is fine. Just avoid moldy or shriveled ones.
Taste your petals. Not all roses taste the same! Some are citrusy, others spicy. Always taste before using rose petals in your jams. Plus, snip off the white base of each petal if it tastes bitter
Skim the foam. It’s optional but makes for a prettier final product. Use a spoon to lift off foam before jarring.
Use low-methoxyl pectin. It is healthier and more natural than regular pectin available on the market today. We still mix it with sugar because without that the jams tend to turn brown. We also skip the calcium water package. Yes, it is not what the package says, but the approach described in our recipes work!

How to Pick Roses for Jam (Hint: Skip the Florist)

Let’s get one thing straight: not all roses belong in your jam jar.

Those grocery store bouquets may look romantic, but they’re grown for show, not flavor. What’s worse, most are soaked in a cocktail of pesticides, fungicides, and who-knows-what else to survive their refrigerated road trip across the country. Even if you rinse them, those chemicals can cling. Not exactly something you want in your jam.

So where do you actually find petals worthy of your strawberry jam?

Your best bet: Wild roses

When it comes to jam making, wild is best! Wild roses bloom in early to mid summer, often in hedgerows, along trails, or even your own backyard. They’re soft, fragrant, and delicate. Look for petals that are deeply scented, slightly velvety, and pale pink to blush red.

Foraging tip: Only pick from areas that haven’t been sprayed (think rural trails, not roadside ditches), and always leave some blooms behind for the bees.

Plan B: Homegrown garden roses

If wild rose season has passes, turn to your garden. As long as you’ve skipped the pesticides and grown them for fragrance, garden roses can make a delicious stand-in. Heirloom varieties, Damask, or old English types tend to have the best flavor.

Important: No matter where you get them, make sure your petals are clean, unsprayed, and genuinely edible.

Wash Those Petals

Even organic roses need a rinse. Bugs, dust, and pollen don’t belong in your jam either.

Here’s how:

Gently pull the petals from the rose base.
Submerge them in a bowl of cool water. Swish lightly.
Let them soak for a few minutes so any hitchhiking critters float off.
Lay petals on a clean paper towel and gently pat them dry.

Pairings and Serving Suggestions

This strawberry & rose petal jam is special. Use it as it deserves:

Spread it on fresh croissants with a slather of cultured butter
Swirled into whipped mascarpone and layer on crepes or pancakes
Layer it between vanilla cake for the most elegant tea-time treat
Spooned on the side of panna cotta
Slather on scones with clotted cream.
Use it as a filling for homemade macarons
Stir into hot oatmeal or porridge on cold mornings
As a hostess gift (label it “Strawberry Rose Confiture” if you’re feeling French)

How to make Strawberry & Rose Petals Jam – Step by Step

strawberry rose petal jam recipe ingredients

mash strawberries mixed with sugar — strawberry rose petal jam recipe ingredients

Strawberry & Rose Jam

This French confiture-style strawberry and rose petal jam recipe calls for summer fresh strawberries, rose petals, fresh lemon juice, pectin and ½ the amount of sugar you’d expect in the jams of this type. It is the real fruit jam your summer deserves. Follow a recipe for a small batch preserver, or easily scale it up to make a larger batch that will last you until next summer.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Idle Cook 3

Yield: 4 x half-pint (8 oz. = 250 ml.) mason jars

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Ingredients

2.5 lbs fresh ripe strawberries hulled and halved or quartered (1135g)
1.25 lbs granulated sugar 570 g
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 80 ml
1.5 oz edible rose petals ~2 cups loosely packed (43g)
1 ½ teaspoon pectin Low-Methoxyl Pectin powder (such as Pomona’s). Alternatively, use your favorite pectin but adjust quantity per manufacturer’s instructions.

Instructions

Mix pectin with sugar: In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the low-methoxyl pectin powder with ½ cup (100 g) of sugar. Set aside. If using non low-methoxyl pectin, follow the directions on the package and read our FAQ for this post. Remember, you will have to add regular pectin at the start of cooking not into the boiling liquid. You will likely have to add more sugar too!
Macerate raspberries: Combine strawberries and sugar in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot. Gently crush strawberries- just enough to get their juices flowing. Then cover and let sit at room temp for at least 3 hours or preferably cold-macerate overnight
Simmer: Next, stir in the lemon juice and bring everything to a steady simmer over medium heat, stirring often to prevent scorching and removing white foam that forms on the surface. Cook jam mixture for 10 minutes
Mix in rose petals: Add rose petals to the mixture and cook for additional 10 minutes. Keep on scooping out the foam from the surface of the jam and stirring regularly.
Thicken: Sprinkle in pectin powder evenly and stir vigorously to dissolve. Continue boiling hard for 5–8 minutes, until the jam thickens and sheets off a spoon.
Test for set: For best results, use the frozen plate test or a candy thermometer (220°F/104°C) to check if the jam is ready.
Jar it up: Then, ladle hot jam into sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims, seal, and process in a canner
Cool and store: Finally, let jars cool 12–24 hours, check seals, and store in a pantry.

Learn how to prepare mason jars and lids for canning

Notes

Processing time guidelines for hot water bath or atmospheric steam canners

Style of Pack: Hot

	Process Time at Elevations of:
Jar Size	0 – 1,000 ft	1,001 – 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
1/2 Pint (8 oz, ~250 ml)	5 min	10 min	15 min

Preserve Type Jam

Cuisine French

Make a batch! Then come back and tell us how this preserve recipe worked out for you. Leave us a comment below, write us, like us on X, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Blue Sky. And remember, sharing is caring!

We love Weck Jars. Here is a link to get them from amazon.ca
https://amzn.to/4i0sbK7 — *We’re not associated with Weck — we simply think their jars are the best out there.*

FAQ

Can I use traditional pectin in this strawberry & rose petal jam recipe?

Sure, but you’ll need to use more sugar. Low-methoxyl pectin lets you go low-sugar without losing set.

I am using regular pectin, what should I do?

Important to note, you will likely need more sugar to make this recipe because regular pectin relies on larger amounts of sugar to jell the jam properly.

When using regular pectin, follow these steps:

First, Mix the powdered pectin with some of the measured out sugar (usually about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup).
Next, stir mixed pectin-sugar into the fruit mixture before you start boiling.

Does this strawberry jam really taste floral?

It’s subtle, not soapy. More of a soft perfume that enhances the fruit, not overwhelms it.

What Does Loosely Packed Actually Mean?

First of all, when a recipe calls for something loosely packed, it means you should fill the measuring cup without pressing down or squishing at all.
Basically, instead of jamming (pun intended) as many petals as possible into the cup, you want to let them fall naturally, like you’re gently showering confetti at a summer wedding.
Furthermore, you should absolutely resist the urge to press them down to “fit more”. Unlike brown sugar, which often calls for a firmly packed measure, rose petals should stay airy and fluffy so they don’t overpower the delicate flavor balance.
Finally, if you want to be truly precise, consider weighing your petals. This extra step guarantees that your strawberry jam turns out exactly as magical as promised.

Can I Use Dried Rose Petals or Rose Water Instead?

Please don’t!

Dried rose petals lack the soft texture, fresh perfume, and flavor needed for this jam. They’ll just float around like sad confetti and never fully infuse.

As for rose water, it is too strong, too one-dimensional, and honestly, it can make your jam taste like fancy soap. Just don’t do it.