I bought some saffron once and made risotto with it, it was ok. Now I have some of the spice leftover, and it's too special and delicate for me to use it for anything, so it just sits in my cabinet.
It's good in black tea.
Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
71–80 of 193 posts
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's a near certainty that what you're buying at the Indian store is fake. 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...
> https://sadafpack.com/blog/how-can-we-distinguish-original-s...
The contents on the website are a bit.. weird? Good 'ol GPT maybe?
> 3. Distinguishing fake saffron with gasoline Saffron does not dissolve in gasoline. Therefore, by dissolving saffron in gasoline, you can decide if your saffron is original or fake.
This doesn't make sense.
> #first stage;
Put saffron in water. In some cases it will change the color of the water very quickly; but this color change is not worth it, because this fast color change signifies fake saffron.
#second stage;
Put the root in water for a short time. When you remove the root from the water, the original saffron does not lose its color, while if it is fake, it loses its added color completely and does not look the same.
Either someone is poor at communicating in English and using heading styles, or this is some kind of poor quality hallucination.
A personal method I think is effective (especially you are familiar with saffron's smell/taste), is to soak a little of it (as mentioned) for a few hours, and taste it. It should have a slightly sweetish, herbal taste.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#73Had anyone tried to grow their own saffron? How did it go?
I have them in my garden. The do great on the California central coast (with only water from natural rainfall except drought years).
Someone else commented that the claim of having to harvest in early morning is silly-- can confirm; just pick them whenever is convenient, but the flowers do only last a couple/few days. Also, no need to harvest the entire flower, just pull the stigmas with your fingers (it isn't difficult, just time consuming).
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#74Years 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.
Here's a weird thing: I don't have any idea what saffron tastes like. Ignoring saffron rice (which to me seems exactly like ordinary rice, but yellow -- which probably means it didn't really have saffron in it?), I've only had dishes that include it (that I knew of) a couple of times in my life. Those dishes had many different flavors going on, so I couldn't tell which of those flavors were saffron. I need to just ge…
Saffron ice cream.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#75I'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…
Reminder that recipes do not enjoy copyright protection.
Expression of a recipe, such as the written instructions, photographs, and other creative elements, may be protected by copyright.
Ingredients list and weights fall outside protection as they are considered facts.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
BS to downvote me for this comment. Cheap olive oil is counterfeit. Cheap milk, honey and coffee are adulterated with fillers. Cheap tumeric is colored with lead oxide
I can buy some of your claims, but how do you adulterate a coffee bean?
You add fillers to the ground product.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#77- "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…
Thanks for digging it up. I can shed more light on the meaning of the original word for Saffron. The article mentions Saffron comes from Arabic az-za’faran. That word is the Arabicized version of an older Persian word: Za-paran (Zayesh-paran), which means "causes abortion" (zaa/zayesh --> birth). The most common source of Saffron in Iran is area in southern Khorasan called Ghohistan (from Kohistan) meaning mountainou…
Yeah something tells me there is more to why Iran is a huge producer of Saffron than what the article says:
> Today, most saffron is grown in countries where workers are paid less than their Western European counterparts would need to be. The primary producers are Iran, India, and Greece.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#78I bought some saffron once and made risotto with it, it was ok. Now I have some of the spice leftover, and it's too special and delicate for me to use it for anything, so it just sits in my cabinet.
Saffron ice cream (with coconut milk) is incredible.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
BS to downvote me for this comment. Cheap olive oil is counterfeit. Cheap milk, honey and coffee are adulterated with fillers. Cheap tumeric is colored with lead oxide
I can buy some of your claims, but how do you adulterate a coffee bean?
Coffee beans are bin-sorted in a way where the good coffee gets better, and the lesser coffee gets worse.
The most-shapely and consistent beans go to the more-premium lines.
The small, underdeveloped, or misshapen beans (called "clinkers") go to the cheaper lines, along with the other defects. And so does the chaff from the coffee hulls, which is rolled up into weird little balls and thrown in too -- which is not done with premium coffees. The unavoidable portion of insect parts is higher in cheap coffee than it is in expensive coffee.
In an ideal world, all of the stuff that is removed from premium coffees would be used as compost or something.
But it is instead included in the lesser coffees, where it is consumed.
Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a near certainty that what you're buying at the Indian store is fake. 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...
> https://sadafpack.com/blog/how-can-we-distinguish-original-s... The contents on the website are a bit.. weird? Good 'ol GPT maybe? > 3. Distinguishing fake saffron with gasoline Saffron does not dissolve in gasoline. Therefore, by dissolving saffron in gasoline, you can decide if your saffron is original or fake. This doesn't make sense. > #first stage; Put saffron in water. In some cases it will change the color o…
you want to buy your saffron from people who don't speak english, trust me