Saffron

The dried stigmas of a crocus, three per flower, hand-picked — which is the entire explanation for why it is the most expensive spice by weight in the world.

Where it comes from

Saffron comes from Crocus sativus, a sterile plant propagated only by dividing its corms. It is thought to have originated in Bronze Age Crete or the eastern Mediterranean, and is now grown chiefly in Iran, which produces the great majority of the world’s crop, with Kashmir, Afghanistan, Spain, Greece and Morocco making the rest.

Each flower yields three red stigmas, picked by hand in a short autumn window, and it takes on the order of 150,000 flowers to make a kilogram of dried saffron. Nothing about that has been mechanised.

Varieties

• Iranian sargol — All-red stigmas with the yellow style removed. The highest grade.
• Spanish coupé and La Mancha — Spanish grades; coupé is red-only, La Mancha includes some style.
• Kashmiri — Deep red, thick threads, highly prized and scarce.
• Powdered saffron — Convenient and the easiest form to adulterate. Whole threads can at least be inspected.
• Safflower and turmeric — Sold as saffron substitutes and sometimes fraudulently as saffron. They colour; they do not taste of it.

In the kitchen

Saffron must be steeped — in warm water, milk, stock or wine — for at least ten minutes before it goes into a dish. Threads dropped straight into a pan give colour in streaks and very little flavour.

Crushing the threads first, or grinding them with a pinch of sugar or salt, gets far more out of a small quantity.

More is not better. Past a certain point saffron turns medicinal and bitter, and a pinch is genuinely the right amount for a large dish.

Choosing and keeping

It is heavily adulterated. Real saffron threads are trumpet-shaped, deep red, and colour water slowly and yellow-gold — anything that bleeds red instantly is dyed.

Saffron is tagged on 46 dishes from 22 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.