Your typical potpourri is made with dried ingredients like preserved pine cones, dried herbs, and essential oils. These provide a subtle scent to the room, and is often used to mask smells. However, a stovetop potpourri uses fresh ingredients, and is used to make the whole house smell amazing. Here's how to make your own potpourri recipe:
What is Stovetop Potpourri?
A stovetop potpourri is a simmering pot filled with fragrant ingredients like citrus fruit, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and other ingredients that make your home smell amazing. Stovetop potpourris are often made in a pot or slow cooker as the mixture needs heat to create a fragrant vapor.
Stovetop potpourris are also called simmer pots as they are left on the heat to simmer, but not boil. This prevents the ingredients from burning, and provides a delightful scent that wafts throughout the home. A simmer pot can be left on the heat until the liquid evaporates, or can be topped up with more water to keep the fragrance going.
Simmer pots are popular around the holidays as they also provide warmth during the cold winter months.
What You'll Need for a Stovetop Potpourri
Stovetop potpourris are very forgiving in the ingredients you put in it. The best things to put in a stovetop potpourri include herbs and spices (none of the dried kind!), fruit slices of your choice, and baking extracts like almond extract, lemon extract, and vanilla.
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Fresh Cranberries
- Apple Slices
- Orange Slices
- Lemons
- Fresh Herbs - rosemary sprigs, or fresh mint work well!
- Whole Spices - like whole cloves, star anise, bay leaves, etc.
- Scented Extracts - almond, lemon, or vanilla
Our Stove Top Potpourri Recipe
The scent created by the simmer pot depends on the stovetop potpourri recipe. Different ingredients create different fragrances, and the concentration of each ingredient determines the most prominent aroma coming from the potpourri. Here are our top picks for stovetop potpourri recipes that are sure to make your home smell like the holidays!
Warm Vanilla Cranberry
Add vanilla, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar, almond extract, and fresh cranberries into your simmer pot. Add in grated nutmeg if desired, and top up the pot with water. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and lower the heat to keep the mixture warm without boiling it. This should make your home smell like baked holiday treats, and feel warm and cozy!
Fruity Mix
Toss out that artificial air freshener, and make your home smell like an orchard with this fruity potpourri recipe: place orange slices, lemon slices, cranberries, apples, grapefruits, and any other fruit you would like into a pot.
Add fresh sprigs of mint, some lemon or orange extract, and a few slices of ginger to complement the scents, then top it up with water. This is a light and refreshing scent that will make your house smelling like summer! Top up the water as it evaporates, and add a few more fruit slices to intensify the scents.
Classic Christmas Potpourri
For a classic holiday stove top potpourri recipe, you'll need a medium-sized saucepan, cranberries, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, rosemary, and almond or vanilla extract. Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan, and top it up with water, and let the mixture simmer.
You can mix this recipe up by adding some lemon slices, apples, mint, fresh lavender, or even flower petals! As long as you have the base recipe, your home is sure to smell like Christmas all winter long. You can also place the mixture in a mason jar, and give it away as a holiday present along with an instruction tag on how to simmer the stovetop potpourri.
Autumn Stovetop Potpourri
Not quite over pumpkin season yet? Create a stovetop potpourri recipe that will make your home smell like apple cider! Add apples, a few slices of lemon, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, grated nutmeg, star anise, pumpkin spice, and a few drops of vanilla into a simmer pot. Fill the simmer pot with water, and breathe in the warm scent of autumn.
Because this recipe is heavy on the spices, you can reuse stovetop potpourri by topping it up with water as the water level goes low. Leave the pot on low heat, and top up the fruits for a more intense aroma. The spices are not one-time use ingredients, and can keep your home fragrant for days!
Things to Remember When Setting Up a Stovetop Potpourri
- A stovetop potpourri is kept on the heat as it is being used. Always remember to remove it from the heat source before sleeping, and never leave the pot unattended to avoid burning the ingredients as well as other accidents.
- Stovetop potpourri recipes are versatile - you can place almost any ingredient in a simmer pot as long as it is all natural, fresh, and submerged in water. We suggest using ingredients that are highly-aromatic for the best results.
- Using a clear, glass pot helps to monitor the water level, so you can top it up with fresh, hot water when the water level is too low. If using a glass pot, do not pour cold water into the simmering pot, as doing so may cause the glass to shatter.
- Simmer pots are meant to maintain a fragrance around the home. They are not meant to mask odors coming from the kitchen, bathroom, or anywhere else in the house. If your house has a strange odor, chances are this is a cleanliness issue. Book an appointment with one of our experienced cleaners to deodorize your home, and you can keep the simmering pot going all season long!
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