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Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

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Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#131

Post by faizan-ali »

gnicholas wrote: post #120
BobaFloutist wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap olive oil from Costco is not counterfeit. Cheap honey from Costco isn't counterfeit. Cheap vanilla from Costco is...once again, not counterfeit. Moral: Buy things from Costco.

Olive oil should be used within a reasonably short time of opening, which makes Costco-sized bottles less practical. We buy honey and vanilla extract from Costco, but we don't use olive oil anywhere near fast enough to justify buying Costco-sized jugs.

Olive oil somm here (yeah that's a thing!)

Olive oil (and all cooking oils in general) are the opposite of wine - once bottled they start degrading and any additional exposure to air, light, heat degrades them further.

What degrades specifically? Usually it's the nuanced flavors and health benefits of good extra virgin, it'll usually be fine for cooking but you're losing out on the purposeful decision of using olive oil over vegetable oils (gross)

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#132

Post by altinagr »

ghastmaster wrote: post #85
poulsbohemian wrote: post #39

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…

I have a Greek friend who's family goes into the mountains and picks it. There is no market infrastructure in the villages, similar to how venison is expensive at a restaurant, yet poor rural hunters kill and eat it all the time.

That's common with foragers. They also pick wild mushrooms which are very expensive in the market.

Greece produces saffron, https://safran.gr/ You can find them in shops, even on airport shops.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#133

Post by efournie »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #15

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…

A few threads in a soft boiled egg with a pinch of salt is also a great and easy way to experience the flavor.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#134

Post by thisislife2 »

falaki wrote: post #58
perihelions wrote: post #14

- "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…

Does that mean Saffron is dangerous for pregnant women?

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#135

Post by globular-toast »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #39

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…

There are different types. Real saffron is used sparingly and I doubt anyone is throwing a bunch of it in tea. My friends from Afghanistan would add a thread or two to their kahwah. Before they left they gifted me a massive bag of "saffron". I was a bit confused because it would be equivalent to a lifetime's worth based on how they used it. I think I concluded it might have been part of a different part of the plant or something, but it wasn't the "real" saffron they were using for sure.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#136

Post by globular-toast »

yifanl wrote: post #43
poulsbohemian wrote: post #39

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…

I'm not saying I don't believe you, but how credible are these cooking videos? $10000 of saffron could provide enough flavour for easily 6 months worth of tea.

A $20k per year tea budget also seems incredibly high!

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#137

Post by pcl »

faizan-ali wrote: post #131
gnicholas wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Olive oil should be used within a reasonably short time of opening, which makes Costco-sized bottles less practical. We buy honey and vanilla extract from Costco, but we don't use olive oil anywhere near fast enough to justify buying Costco-sized jugs.

Olive oil somm here (yeah that's a thing!) Olive oil (and all cooking oils in general) are the opposite of wine - once bottled they start degrading and any additional exposure to air, light, heat degrades them further. What degrades specifically? Usually it's the nuanced flavors and health benefits of good extra virgin, it'll usually be fine for cooking but you're losing out on the purposeful decision of using olive…

Olive oil is so much cheaper in bulk. Do you have any tips for how to preserve it? Intuitively, I would assume that re-bottling a large volume into several small bottles (and then keeping the extras sealed and in the dark) would be better than using a larger bottle continuously. Does that hold up to your experience?

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#138

Post by globular-toast »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #123
Eager wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grinding with sugar is definitely the way to go. I generally buy a big wheel of Iranian Saffron on eBay or a Persian shop, then grind it all up in a mortar and pestle with some sugar and store it in a spice jar in a dark cupboard. Then when you need it you don't need to be faffing about. If you want to be fancy, save a few whole strands that you can add to rice for decoration, but using whole stamens is really not ne…

> I generally buy a big wheel of Iranian Saffron on eBay or a Persian shop Shouldn't this be a dead ringer for the stuff being fake? We don't trade with Iran.

Yes we do.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#139

Post by rpigab »

Anotheroneagain wrote: post #119
poulsbohemian wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m just saying - you watch these people pull out some giant jar that is more saffron than I’ve ever seen in my life and they use it like it’s no big deal. Meanwhile I’m pulling out individual threads with tweezers because the cost is so high

The west isn't that rich anymore - I think it's mostly an artifact from only taking western things into account. The numbers would look very different if the methods weren't biased.

Yes, it's also a difference in values and culture, we are fools to think that Azerbaidjan would desperately need expensive weapons in their recent conflict against Armenia, when in reality they'd always prefer a dozen saffron tea cups over a thousand mortar shells to shoot towards the Nagorno-Karabakh.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#140

Post by barrkel »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #123
Eager wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grinding with sugar is definitely the way to go. I generally buy a big wheel of Iranian Saffron on eBay or a Persian shop, then grind it all up in a mortar and pestle with some sugar and store it in a spice jar in a dark cupboard. Then when you need it you don't need to be faffing about. If you want to be fancy, save a few whole strands that you can add to rice for decoration, but using whole stamens is really not ne…

> I generally buy a big wheel of Iranian Saffron on eBay or a Persian shop Shouldn't this be a dead ringer for the stuff being fake? We don't trade with Iran.

I think that's just the US, though, right?

UK imported 11 tons of saffron from Iran in 2023 - https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/GBR/yea...

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