141–150 of 193 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're talking about the Azerbaijan outdoor chef who digs a pit with a backhoe to barbecue a whole cow, that guy is amazing. My dad's an old pitmaster and became obsessed and sends me the guy's videos religiously.
I’m curious ! Can you share the link ? Thanks in advance
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…
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.
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.
2019: https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/AUS/yea...
2023: https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/AUS/yea...
Your blinkers are showing.
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…
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.
Saffron's expensive by weight; but not per recipe. A teaspoon of the stuff could float away on the breeze, but few recipes call for as much as a teaspoon. A £5.00 box of saffron lasts me about 3 months, and I use the stuff weekly.
The way I cook it, for two people, is to put a very small amount (I guess it's around 0.1 grams or so, not much more) in a small espresso cup with a small amount of very hot water.
The saffron quickly dissolves in it, and you can then throw the water with saffron in the pasta, add some grated cheese (generally parmigiano or grana) and the sausages pieces and it's delicious.
The saffron makes a lot of difference.
I used to work in a spice factory. Unlike everything else, they locked the saffron up separately. There were detailed weight logs for when we hand packed (with tweezers) it into jars. We were told it was worth more by weight than cocaine.
Saffron ranges from $2 - $10 per gram for retail amounts in different parts of the world and less at wholesale. It’s expensive, but nowhere near the price of cocaine.
And that's for basic iranian saffron.
Quality italian/spanish one (strong in crocin content) is at least 30 euros per gram.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're talking about the Azerbaijan outdoor chef who digs a pit with a backhoe to barbecue a whole cow, that guy is amazing. My dad's an old pitmaster and became obsessed and sends me the guy's videos religiously.
I’m curious ! Can you share the link ? Thanks in advance
It's not really very wildernessy since most of the time he's just outside his house, but still quite interesting and a good inspirational resource.
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…