Saffron is a spice made of the dried stigma of the saffron crocus flower. It has aunique flavor and aroma that is often described as floral, honey-like, and slightly bitter. It’s grown primarily in Iran, and it’s a common ingredient inIranian, Moroccan, and Indian dishes. You’ll find it in risotto, paella,and bouillabaisse recipes.
Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world by weight, due to the labor-intensive process of harvesting the stigma. Each crocus flower only makes three strands of saffron, and they must be removed one at a time using tweezers.
As of 2023, saffron retails between $10 and $20 per gram. If it’s less than$10/gram, it’s probably a fake like corn silk threads or safflower. These fakes usually aren’t harmful, but they won’t provide the flavor you’re after either.
While it’s very expensive per gram, a little goes a long way. An education in the culinary arts from Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts may help cooks and chefs to develop their palates so they’re not overusing pricy spices like saffron!
The irony of the Whole Foods saffron is that all saffron must be hand harvested from the Crocussativus plant,a flower that blooms purple and blue petals in the fall. Saffron is expensive not because it’s difficult to grow, but because of the labor and tedious timing necessary to extract it from the flower. The prized reddish-orange “stigmas”stem from the middle of the plant a few weeks after the flower blooms, and they must be harvested at mid-morning, when the flower is fully open to the Sun.
One of the earliest references to saffron dates to 2300 BCE, in TheLegend of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian work that describes the birthplace of the founder of the Akkadian empire as “city of saffron.” The word “saffron” is very similar in many languages around the world. Etymologists trace the word to the Medieval Latin “safranum,”which comes from the Arabic word az-za’faran.
In2022, using ancient art and genetics, new research published in Frontiers argued that Crocus sativus was first domesticated in Greece in approximately 1700 BCE. Many ancient Minoan art pieces depict saffron, including the fresco of blue monkeys picking saffron below. International trade brought saffron from the present-day Middle East andMediterranean to Spain, where it was likely introduced for cultivation in 921 CE, write scientists C. L. Madan, B.M. Kapur, and U. S. Gupta in a 1966 issue of EconomicBotany. Hundreds of years later, saffron could be found everywhere from the fields of England to Russia.
Crocussativus is most famously known for its culinary properties. It’s the cornerstone flavor in many dishes from around the world, ranging from paella to biryani. Some chefs describe saffron as tasting “slightly earthy and sweet,” while giving off a“smoky aroma.”
