SAFFRON is a flavorful herb with a rich yellow color. It adds its own distinctive taste to sweet breads and cakes. It also makes a nice coloring for candies.
Excerpted from American Spice Trade Association. 1966. A glossary of Spices. American Spice Trade Association. 76 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10005
Crocus sativus L. Saffron, dried stigmas of a member of the crocus family, and the world's most expensive spice, has been treasured from the remotest times. Homer sang of the "Saffron-robed" morn; Solomon listed it among other fragrant delights; a Persian poet watching the setting sun thought of "Saffron-colored viands on an azure dish."
Each Crocus sativus blossom yeilds only three stigmas, which are delicate orange-yellow filaments which must be picked by hand. It takes 225,000 stigmas to make a pound of Saffron, accounting for the high cost of the spice.
Very fortunately, a little Saffron goes a long way. In fancy rolls and biscuits Saffron is added in the form of Saffron tea (steeped in hot water) to impart rich golden color as well as an intriguing exotic aroma. Saffron is a famous seasoner of Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and rice) and Bacalao vizcaino (Cod Fish a la Biscay) both great Spanish dishes. Saffron is particularly good in rice dishes. Add a pinch of spice to the boiling water before putting in the rice.
Saffron is a native of the Mediterranean area. We import most of our Saffron from Spain. Portugal is also a source.
Ruth Winter.1978. A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.
The dried stigmas of the crocus grown in Western Asian and Southern Europe. Orange-brown; strong, peculiar aromatic odor; bitterish, aromatic taste. Almost entirely employed for coloring and flavoring. Used in bitters, liquor, and spice flavorings for beverages, baked goods, emats, and liquors. Cleared by the USDA Meat Inspection Department for coloring sausage casings, oleomargarine, shortening, and for marking ink. The extract is used in honey and rum flavorings for beverages, ice cream, ices, candy, baked goods, and condiments, and it goes into yellow coloring. Saffron was formerly used to treat skin diseases. No known toxicity. GRASS ACCEPTABLE
Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. III
consists of the prepared stigmas of a plant called Crocus sativus and is sold in two varieties.
Simon, Andre L. 1952. A Concise Encyclopaedia of Gastronomy. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.
Lat. Crocus sativus; Fr. Safran. One of the fallen monarchs of the kitchen. Bacon wrote that 'The English are rendered sprightly by a liberal use of saffron in sweetmeats and broths'. It was used largely for its flavor and color, but it was completely-or almost completely-ousted in England by the introduction of curry. It is, however, still a sine qud non of the Cornishg Saffron cake. It still holds it own in Cornwall and North Devon, and, of course, in Italy and Provence, the Riotto Milanese and Bouillabaiksse being two of many saffron dishes.
Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.
is an orange-yellow flavoring and food coloring made from the dried stigmas of a crocus.
- ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French safran, based on Arabic za'faran.
Igoe, Robert S. 1983. Dictionary of Food Ingredients. Van Nostrand and Reinhold Company.
is a spice which is obtained from the dried stigmas of a fall-flowering Crocus sativus L. The flower stigma is of intense yellow color. It has a powerful, somewhat bitter aroma. It is used in breads, fish, chicken, sauces, and rice dishes.
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant of Greece and Asia Minor. This plant was formerly cultivated in England and is now spontaneous. It is cultivated in Austria, France and Spain for the deep, orange-colored stigmas of the flowers, which are sued for coloring. It was not cultivated in France before the Crusades, the bulbs from Avignon being introduced about the end of the fourteenth century. Loudon says saffron is used in sauces and for coloring by the Spaniards and Poles. In England and France, it enters into creams, biscuits, preserves and liquors and is used for coloring butter and cheese. The Mongols use it in cooking. Under the Hebrew name, carcom, the plant is alluded to by Solomon; and as krokos, by Homer, Hippocrates, Theophrastus and Theocritus. Virgil and Columella mention it and Cilicia and Sicily are both alluded to by Dioscorides and Pliny as localities celebrated for this drug. Throughout the middle ages.
Excerpts from Bender, Arnold E. 1990. Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. Butterworths, Boston.
Dried stigma of Crocus sativus (related to garden crocus). Contains glycoside picrocrocin, and coloring principles crocin and crocetin. Used as natural dyestuff (permitted food color) and spice. Very soluble in water.
Excerpts from Passmore, Jacki. 1991. The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking. Hearst Books, New York.
This fragrant, exotic yellow spice is said to have been cultivated originally in Cilicia, in the southernmost part of Turkey. But now Kashmir is the most important producer of saffron-the word kasmiraja means saffron and may have been the inspiration for the name Kashmir. The world's most expensive spice, it is obtained from the crocus flower, each blossom of which grows just three stigmas. It takes more than a quarter of a million stigmas to make just 1 lb (500 g) of saffron. These fine golden strands are carefully handpicked and dried, then packed whole or ground to its characteristic fine orange powder.Because of its enormous expense, saffron powder is often adulterated with the less costly Mexican saffron, Carthamus tinctorious, or the yellow-colored spice, turmeric, and may be sold in this form as “Indian saffron”. To avoid using an adulterated powder, it is perhaps best to use the dark orange thread-like stigmas that are sold in small packs. They should be kept dry and away from strong light. Powdered saffron can also lack the subtle taste and fragrance of genuine saffron or may lose some of its delicate fragrance during grinding. In Asia, saffron is used mainly in northern india, where it makes its unique contribution to rice dishes, coloring the grains a rich gold. It is made into an infusion that is sprinkled over finished dishes, and is used to decorate meats and breads baked in the tandoor, and to color and flavor desserts and sweetmeats. Its other important role in Indian life is a stillak, the red paste made from ground saffron that is used to mark the forehead as a gesture of blessing and good fortune. Indian brides may paint their whole palms with designs in saffron paste. To use whole saffron, pound a small pinch of the stigmas in a small mortar, then steep in a little warm to boiling water or milk. This releases the delicate flavor, subtle aroma and deep yellow color. Powdered saffron can be added directly to a dish during cooking. Powdered or fresh turmeric, which is much less expensive, is used in Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma and other parts of Southeast Asia for its yellow color. Its flavor is decidedly pungent and tends to predominante over other seasonings. Also known as kesar; zafraan (India); safuran (Japan); kesar (Nepal); kunyit kering (Malaysia); kashubha (Philippines).
