Saffron

English name

Saffron

Green Saffron Blends using Black Pepper

Badaam Pasanda, Biryani, Dhansak (Dahl Gosht)

Hindi name

Kesar, Zaffran

Sanskrit name

Kum Kuma, Agnisekhara, Kashmirajanman

Latin name

Crocus sativas

Plant Family

Iridaceae (Iris family)

Region grown

Arguably, and in our opinion, the world’s finest is grown in Kashmir. The Spanish or Iranians might well dispute this! Spanish and Iranian saffron is rightly held in high regard, but the best Kashmiri saffron has rarely been tried in Europe. This is understandable as it is notoriously hard to source outside of India!

Part of plant used

Hand-picked dried stigmas.

Plant description

Autumn flowering purple crocus

Characteristics

to those buying it, the first characteristic that comes to mind might be its cost, but, to those cooking with it, the luxurious taste, smell, and colour is all that comes to mind – the cost is long forgotten. The cost is also tempered by the fact that a very little saffron will go a very long way and it will also last a long time. If properly kept (in an airtight container away from light), saffron has a shelf life unequalled by nearly any other ingredient. It is worth remembering that the better the quality of saffron that you buy, the less you will need to use.

It is also used as a vibrant orangey yellow dye – usually for clothes, especially Indian swarmi’s and Buddhist robes, but sometimes for hair, as Alexander the Great will testify!

Saffron is also highly valued for its medicinal qualities.

Powder vs. Threads

Saffron can be bought in either powder form or as threads. Threads are generally considered preferable but are not always so. If powders are pure they can be easier to cook with, but, the problem with them lies in proving that they are pure. Even powders misleadingly labeled as 100% saffron may not be ‘proper’ saffron.

It is only the red female stigmas that, when dried, should be classified as saffron. The male stamens are deep yellow and have none of the culinary properties of the stigmas. This does not stop some unscrupulous traders from making powder from these and either trying to pass it off as saffron, or bulking out legitimate saffron powder.

Other ingredients used to adulterate saffron include turmeric, safflower and calendula. This practice might be less common if, as under Henry VIII, padding out pure saffron was still a capital offence, punishable by being burnt at the stake or buried alive along with your dodgy wares! If you are offered saffron at a price which seems too good to be true, it probably is. Saffron farmers have managed to work out various ingenious methods of adulterating saffron threads as well, so it really makes sense to get them from a supplier that you can trust. Stigmas can be soaked in glycerin to increase its weight and give it a shiny appearance.

When real saffron is placed on the surface of water it will instantly expand, and release its colour slowly – artificial colouring will leech out much more quickly. If placed in alcohol, a ‘true’ saffron thread will exude colour whilst remaining its original colour, whereas adulterated materials will bleach after some time.

Saffron has to be collected at pace as there is only a short window to pick it, so sometime the stamens do get accidentally mixed in. You can sometimes easily see when not all of the threads are the red colour that they should be. As mentioned, cooking can be easier with a good pure powder than threads. Threads need to be either mixed with heat and water to release their flavour, or with acid or alcohol. When threads are powdered the flavours and aromas are released.

High quality threads can release their flavour for 24 hours or more, so it’s worth allowing plenty of time when cooking with saffron. You should aim to steep the threads for at least half an hour before using them, but try it for longer if you can.

Aroma

Bitter/sweet yet musky (but not musty!) with fresh tobacco aromas and honey overtones, it is instantly distinctive and so unique that is has no substitutes. You can make a saffron dish with turmeric instead of saffron, as is sometimes suggested, but it will be a different dish with a different flavour and the colour less rich.

History

surely no spice has a greater history, and certainly none can claim a more romantic one. The search and desire for many once exotic and rare spices such as pepper and ginger has inspired many an adventurer of the past, and certainly necessitated the ancients gaining mastery of the seas. Yet, whilst pepper is now as common as salt, saffron remains enticingly mysterious.

Traceable history of saffron is estimated as going back between 3000 – 5000 years, it certainly seems to predate any written history. There seems to be evidence that the Sumerians in Mesopotamia used it 5000 years ago. Their writing on ceramic tablets (on display in many museums from The Louvre to Cairo) is the oldest text known to man, and they suggest that saffron was well known to them.

Some sources suggest that it arrived in Kashmir as early as 500BC. It is mentioned in many more ancient texts such as The Bible and some of the oldest Ayurvedic treatises, such as the Charaka Samhita which dates back to 500BC.

Both Ovid in ‘Metamorphoses’ and Virgil in ‘Georgics’ tell us the saffron crocus descends from Crocus/Crocos, although for differing reasons. Ovid suggests that because of his unrequited love for Smilax the gods turned him into a saffron plant (she into a climbing bramble), whereas Virgil says that Hermes turned him into the plant after accidentally killing him in a game of discus. Others say that wherever the blood dripped from this mortal wound, a saffron crocus grew.

Zeus, the head of all ancient Greek Gods, slept in a bed of saffron; Cleopatra, legendary Queen, used to bathe in it. It kept her skin clear and blemish free, and apparently made her lovemaking more pleasurable. Rumours are that she also used it as make up, presumably giving her a hue not too dissimilar from the self-tan so liberally applied by many girls today!

It was an indispensable ingredient in the great Moghul (Northern Indian) kitchens, and used liberally when cooking for the royals.

Decorating dishes with saffron in India is still a mark of honour for your guest.

General culinary use of saffron is with rice, but this is unnecessarily limiting. There are many more wonderful dishes that include it, including much baking and many puddings: saffron ice cream is very popular across India.

Ireland, in the 16th century, imported their saffron from Spain. It is quite possible it was grown there as well. A pamphlet, published by the Dublin Society in 1732, certainly advocated its cultivation in Ireland. In 1858 William Pinkerton in "The Highland Kilt and the Old Irish Dress" in the Ulster Journal of Archeology quotes a 14th century poem which lists "All the herbys of Ierlond" and "saffrowne" is one of them.

Points of interest

One acre of land in Kashmir will yield approximately 900 grams of saffron. This is the equivalent of around 125,000 crocus heads – each one picked by hand.

Saffron Walden is so called because it used to be the centre of the English saffron trade in the 16th century.

In its heyday, one third of English recipes included saffron. By the end of the 18th century its popularity dwindled and cultivation died out for a variety of reasons.

Energetics

Pungent, bitter, sweet-cold-sweet

Spiritual

Develops love, compassion, and devotion.

Precautions

Large quantities are best avoided when pregnant.