51–60 of 193 posts
I love saffron! Not because of its taste (which I kind-of hate) or other properties (like staining, which I definitely hate, or security-theatre-triggering, but more about that below), but mostly due to the rituals around it, and because a friend of mine once got booted off a TV cooking show as a result of using it. So, visiting the famous (and horrible, but thank you!) Spice Market in Istanbul recently, I just could…
A couple of years ago I trained some ResNets to detect saffron flowers and their stigmas and then simulated the picking process in Blender. One would have to develop a suitable soft gripper and use a precise pick-and-place robotic arm (delta robots are great for this), but IMHO the amount of manual labour during harvest can be solved with today's technology.
What about Oscar? https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/saffron-cult...
- "One of the earliest references to saffron dates to 2300 BCE, in The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian work that describes the birthplace of the founder of the Akkadian empire as “city of saffron.”" This doesn't seem right: Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known Mesopotamian work of fiction and it's a more recent ~2,100 BCE [0]. The historic person Sargon of Assad lived in the 24th/23rd century BCE [1]—are t…
I've spoken to many people who have purchased a tiny jar of saffron but have no idea how to use it, so here's what I consider an excellent starter recipe: https://wtop.com/lifestyle/2024/01/braised-chicken-with-fenn... Reprinted from here ( https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/provencal-braised-chic... ) with permission, and avoids the paywall. This dish also works just as well with fish (it is based on a bouillabai…
Here's what I don't get... so here in the US, saffron is generally speaking, extremely expensive and rationed carefully by cooks. Meanwhile, I watch these cooking videos on YouTube and people in villages in places like Azerbaijan are casually throwing the equivalent of $10,000 worth of saffron into their tea. Granted, I understand places like Iran (spoiler alert: not the best relationship with the US) are major produ…
When I go to Safeway I can find a handful of saffron threads suspended in a small glass jar for about $23, or I can find a similar thing for $30 at a fancier grocer. Meanwhile, if I go to the nearby independent indian grocery store I can get a cigarette-pack-sized box of the stuff for about ten bucks. While it's definitely not the cheapest spice I don't feel bad about liberally using it in my chai recipe and a box us…
Check out these two sources and maybe run a test?
https://sadafpack.com/blog/how-can-we-distinguish-original-s...
https://motherwouldknow.com/how-to-identify-real-saffron-avo...
Years ago, I was convinced that saffron's "taste" was more mental than anything else, so I ran a little matched pairs experiment to see if anyone could taste the difference between a rice dish with saffron or one without. No one could. Admittedly, it was too small of an experiment to be sure, but it just seems like a very expensive food dye to me. I'll just stick to turmeric.
I need to just get some and make a tea or something with it so I know what it tastes like.
Years ago, I was convinced that saffron's "taste" was more mental than anything else, so I ran a little matched pairs experiment to see if anyone could taste the difference between a rice dish with saffron or one without. No one could. Admittedly, it was too small of an experiment to be sure, but it just seems like a very expensive food dye to me. I'll just stick to turmeric.
Was there no difference in fragrance either? Saffron imparts a very distinct fragrance, more than taste. And that fragrance affects perceived taste. In larger quantities, it has a bitter-ish taste. I use it in rice puddings, greek yogurt (simplest recipe possible - yogurt, sugar, cardamom powder and few threads of saffron. Big difference with and without saffron).
- "One of the earliest references to saffron dates to 2300 BCE, in The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian work that describes the birthplace of the founder of the Akkadian empire as “city of saffron.”" This doesn't seem right: Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known Mesopotamian work of fiction and it's a more recent ~2,100 BCE [0]. The historic person Sargon of Assad lived in the 24th/23rd century BCE [1]—are t…
The most common source of Saffron in Iran is area in southern Khorasan called Ghohistan (from Kohistan) meaning mountainous.
Both of these facts corroborate the Akkadian sources.
Here's what I don't get... so here in the US, saffron is generally speaking, extremely expensive and rationed carefully by cooks. Meanwhile, I watch these cooking videos on YouTube and people in villages in places like Azerbaijan are casually throwing the equivalent of $10,000 worth of saffron into their tea. Granted, I understand places like Iran (spoiler alert: not the best relationship with the US) are major produ…
When I go to Safeway I can find a handful of saffron threads suspended in a small glass jar for about $23, or I can find a similar thing for $30 at a fancier grocer. Meanwhile, if I go to the nearby independent indian grocery store I can get a cigarette-pack-sized box of the stuff for about ten bucks. While it's definitely not the cheapest spice I don't feel bad about liberally using it in my chai recipe and a box us…
Had anyone tried to grow their own saffron? How did it go?
We grow saffron here in N Texas and have for about 3 years now. Last year was our best year for production but that is only because we expanded the number of bulbs that we have planted so our saffron harvest grew in line with that. The first year we ended up with less than a dozen threads total. It is easy to grow. Just stick the bulb about 1" to 1.5" (25 mm - 40 mm) below the surface and water it in. Keep it moist b…