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Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

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Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#161

Post by OJFord »

resolutebat wrote: post #66
PreInternet01 wrote: post #7

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…

Safrole is a precursor for MDMA (ecstasy), so Customs might be interested, but I wouldn't have expected TSA-style scanners to pick this up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole

It might just look interesting in the sense of being indistinguishable from a bag of something that is contraband, and so warrant checking out by eyeball.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#162

Post by epolanski »

cess11 wrote: post #152
epolanski wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never, ever seen saffron below 5 euros per gram in Europe. Ever. ISO 1 Saffron is no less than 10 euros per gram. If it's less it's not pure and it contains other parts of the flower or worse it has been cut with something. And that's for basic iranian saffron. Quality italian/spanish one (strong in crocin content) is at least 30 euros per gram.

Rather expensive 1 gram packets in regular grocery stores in Sweden go for 2.5-5 grams per 10 euros. At 'oriental' stores you can find good saffron in larger packages at lower price per weight.

Then it's not pure saffron. It just can't be.

Quality 1 saffron at ICA (largest swedish supermarket chain) is 24 euros per gram.

Anything below ISO 1/Quality 1 is cut or low quality.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#163

Post by cess11 »

epolanski wrote: post #162
cess11 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather expensive 1 gram packets in regular grocery stores in Sweden go for 2.5-5 grams per 10 euros. At 'oriental' stores you can find good saffron in larger packages at lower price per weight.

Then it's not pure saffron. It just can't be. Quality 1 saffron at ICA (largest swedish supermarket chain) is 24 euros per gram. Anything below ISO 1/Quality 1 is cut or low quality.

Ica doesn't sell good quality saffron as far as I know. I got ten 0.5 gram satchels for 100 SEK before 'jul' last year, small paper packets with their own branding placed at the checkout.

Probably more expensive in the 'big' cities.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#164

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

morkalork wrote: post #108
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…

I'm surprised after all day nobody mentions paella. Definitely not a starter recipe but still, rather well-known is it not?

Paella usually requires a specialized pan to do it properly, which most people might not have, so I thought the bouillabaisse might be easier for people just looking to try saffron out.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#165

Post by user_7832 »

krageon wrote: post #157
curiousObject wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good comment, but you don’t need to say #2

I think it's reasonable to invite people to reinvestigate their preconceived notions of what folks who don't speak english do and do not know. The original comment was essentially "well how would they know to use a # for a heading? I don't expect that from a non-english speaker", which is definitely a statement that should result in some introspection.

I think it’s quite unwarranted and very judgemental. I’m myself a non native English speaker and come from a country where the majority aren’t a native speaker.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#166

Post by user_7832 »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #105
user_7832 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I wouldn’t expect such a person to know to use a # for headings either.

[flagged]

1 makes sense, but 2 is very unnecessary. I’m not a native speaker myself, and my main suspicion did not even involve humans writing this.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#167

Post by cmclaughlin »

throwway120385 wrote: post #83
aagha wrote: post #55

Earlier 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...

They grow it in Eastern Washington: https://cyrussaffron.com/about-us-1 . And it is significantly cheaper than the imported stuff.

Thanks for sharing this!

I’m half Iranian and didn’t grow up with my dad, so I have very little cultural connection except for my love of Persian food.

It’s hard for me to justify buying the little bottles of Saffron at groceries stores given the price and the ratio of product to packaging.

Now I’m going to order from that company and step up my culinary game! Still not cheap but at least it feels like a good deal and I appreciate that it’s not shipped across the world and that it’s available in bulk.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#168

Post by perihelions »

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…

Thanks for those insights. It's fun to follow the the links in the Wiktionary etymology sections: I found myself on the page زعتر (za'atar, the herb) [0,1], which is apparently similar to Akkadian words found written in cuneiform, and possibly descends from them!

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/زعتر#Etymology

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za'atar#Etymology

- "However the oldest forms seem to be found in Akkadian 𒌑𒍝𒋼𒊒 (U2.za-te-ru / zateru, ṣateru /, “savory and the Origanum family”) found in lexical lists connected to Akkadian 𒌑𒈛𒈥𒌅 (U2.LUḪ.MAR.TU / šibburratu /, “an aromatic herb”) and Akkadian 𒍝𒄠𒁍𒊒𒊬 (za-am-bu-ruSAR / zambūru /, “thyme”)."

- "Of further curiosity is the possible attestation of the /ʕ/ preserved in cuneiform; it is common for the zero reflex of /ʕ/, to only be detectable in Akkadian by the e-coloring of an adjacent *a. The distance between Arabic and Akkadian and the lack of its presence in their likely intermediaries, possibly suggests a form of further common origin, albeit with a metathesis of /ʕ/ and /t/, and a retention of that form in Arabic, but not so in other Semitic tongues. "

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#169

Post by water-data-dude »

Near the bottom there’s a “Colored line engraving of saffron by C.H. Hemrich”. A bit random, there’s a “Names” section in the top left, where it lists the name in different languages (Arabic, Greek, Latin, Italian, German, French, etc.). Something that caught my attention was that the names with using the latin alphabet are written in different styles. The Latin name “Crocus.” is very clean, less embellished than the rest of the text, the Italian name “Zaffrano” is more cursive-y and at a slant, etc.

The way the different “fonts” are used makes it seem as though the style of writing was used as a way of informing the reader “This is in this language”. Was that common in handwritten documents? I guess that would make sense (maybe that’s where we get the word “italicized”), it’s just nothing I ever considered.

Re: Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

#170

Post by jimmySixDOF »

c22 wrote: post #48
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…

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…

Not saying anything about your case but I see a lot of people confusing Safflower and Saffron and it's not always clearly labeled. They can add a similar color but thats about it. FWIW, I like to keep a little saffron in honey then use that for tea it vs adding threads directly.
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