Let’s Enfleurage!

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Next, select several matching pairs of plates, platters, or soup bowls which—when placed face to face—mate fairly tightly with one another. There should be no large, airy gaps ground the dishes' rims which might allow fragrances to leak away

Now pour your viscous, still-cooling fat into the containers until each is filled to a depth of one-half inch (somewhat more, for soup bowls) as in Fig. 1. Allow the grease to solidify—you can refrigerate the containers if necessary—but before the fat hardens too completely, score its face with a knife in the crisscross pattern depicted in Fig. 2. (The purpose of this is to increase the exposed surface area of the fat so that it'll absorb aromas more quickly and more completely.

After you've scored the face of each pour of grease, take a walk out to the garden and gather your flowers. For best results, be sure to select blossoms which are highly scented ... and then pick them only at their peak fragrance. That is, you should harvest night-blooming varieties only after dark, and day-blooming flowers early in the morning before the dew begins to evaporate.

You may wish to create a single-scent perfume (all rose, for example, or all lily) ... or you might prefer to combine several floral scents for a bouquet-like fragrance. And you needn't restrict yourself to just flowers! Perhaps a dash of ground or whole cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, or vanilla—along with the flower scent you select—will impart to your perfume exactly the intriguing spiciness you want. Then again, some lemon or lime rind mixed in with the blossoms may best express your individuality. In any case, experiment ... be creative. Let your imagination go!

Once you've gathered together your flowers, spices, and/ or other sources of scent, bring them into a kitchen which is not too hot, too drafty, or too dry (any of these conditions could rob your floral assortment of precious fragrances while you work). Then spread a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap over the work area and pluck petals onto it. Be careful not to allow any green parts of the flower—stem, stalks, leaves, calyx— to be mixed in with the blossoms. These sections of the flowering plant frequently harbor fungi which are capable of spreading rot and decay (which can totally ruin your perfume-making) through the petals during enfleurage.

When you've separated all the petals onto the wax paper, lightly sprinkle about two inches of the blooms over one of the fat-coated dishes that you prepared earlier. Add a dash of spice or citrus rind to the plate if you've so chosen (Fig. 3). Next, place the matching fatted plate or bowl over the first and seal the two together with tape (Fig. 4). Repeat the process for each pair of fat-coated dishes. Then set the petal-filled, taped-together containers in a safe place (where you won't be tempted to peek inside) and leave them for a day or two.

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