Tell me about saffron

[Knorf]

Well, it seems likely that’s not her real name, but then Bridget and Yolanda clearly aren’t either.
…
What?

[pulykamell]

@Barking Dog

I’m curious; what about recipes? Anyone know a good recipe involved saffron?

Risotto alla Milanese is my favorite way to enjoy the delicate floral flavor of saffron.

Absurdly cheap “saffron” is almost always safflower.
.

[Dazzling_White_Diamonds]

@Bryan Ekers

She had no patience for her mother’s shenanigans.

[AbFab] But, darling! [/AbFab]

[Mighty_Girl]

Nothing to add about the OP. But regarding the price of saffron, one running joke in our house is my adding “3 Kg of saffron” to the shopping list when it’s my husband doing the shopping.

[lobotomyboy63]

So how much saffron do the Hare Krishnas use to color their robes?

[BMax]

@lobotomyboy63

So how much saffron do the Hare Krishnas use to color their robes?

You’re probably thinking of buddhists. All the ISKCon devotees I’ve seen wear white/off white kurtas, not saffrom robes.

[lobotomyboy63]

@BMax

You’re probably thinking of buddhists. All the ISKCon devotees I’ve seen wear white/off white kurtas, not saffrom robes.

From Wikipedia (bolding mine):

Hare Krishna" brings to mind, for many, the conspicuous Hare Krishna devotees, who first appeared on the streets of Western cities in the 1960s and 1970s, dancing and chanting with drums and cymbals, **wearing saffron dhotis ** or colourful saris, and selling Bhagavad Gita As It Is and similar literatures. These devotees were members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

[Miss_Purl_McKnittington]

@Wee Bairn

My question is the cost and effort and for saffron really worth it? Salt, cinnamon and the like I could see, but does saffron really taste that ungodly good that its worth this-

Absolutely. Try making saffron bread without it. You’ll be sadly disappointed.

Of course, it helps that you need less than a teaspoon when making it, as opposed to a kilogram or something.

Mmm, I wish we had some raisins or dried currants in the house. I’d make some bread tonight if we did.

[GorillaMan]

Here’s a puzzle for Angua and perhaps others, which I’ve wondered before and have been reminded of here. Given that crocus-growing was successful enough at one time for the Essex town of Chipping Walden to be renamed after its product, why the hell haven’t we started producing the stuff again?

[Harmonious_Discord]

@Yllaria

Any advice on growing it? I bought some bulbs and they bloomed the second year, but only a few even came up this last year, with no flowers.

Should it be kept completely separate from other growing things so that it gets no watering when it dies down in the summer? Do I need to shade it when the temperature is over 100F?

You want it to get full sun and have a good loose organic soil. Water when the soil becomes dry. Put bone meal in the surrounding soil. Spring bulbs do really well over a number of years when you use bone meal. Moles like to eat them, so you can make a wire box and bury it open end up. plant the bulbs in the box. Keep those plants growing as long as you can to store energy for next spring’s flowers. In the fall water the beds in September if dry, because they will be starting to root again.

[BMax]

@lobotomyboy63

From Wikipedia (bolding mine):

Hare Krishna" brings to mind, for many, the conspicuous Hare Krishna devotees, who first appeared on the streets of Western cities in the 1960s and 1970s, dancing and chanting with drums and cymbals, **wearing saffron dhotis ** or colourful saris, and selling Bhagavad Gita As It Is and similar literatures. These devotees were members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Buddhist monks wearing saffron robes.

Krishna devotees wearing white kurtas.

A dhoti is wrapped around the waist in the place of trousers. I don’t know about the krishna temple where you live, but the gift shop at the one i go to stocks mostly white/off white dhotis. You will see lots of different colored kurtas on krishna devotees, occasionally one of a pale yellowish hue, but the men wear mostly white. And the ladies love their saris.

[jovan]

@Barking Dog

I’m curious; what about recipes? Anyone know a good recipe involved saffron?

Paella and risotto milanese have already been mentioned, so I’ll add bouillabaisse as another classic recipe that requires saffron. There are probably as many recipes as there are cooks along the Côte d’Azur, however.

Keeping with seafood, I improvised a great seafood risotto with a shellfish broth and tomatoes. At the very end I add just a few threads of saffron.

[Mangetout]

@GorillaMan

Here’s a puzzle for Angua and perhaps others, which I’ve wondered before and have been reminded of here. Given that crocus-growing was successful enough at one time for the Essex town of Chipping Walden to be renamed after its product, why the hell haven’t we started producing the stuff again?

Globalisation, mostly, I think. Saffron is labour-intensive to harvest - and although it will do OK here, it won’t thrive like it will in Mediterranean-type conditions - it also ties the land up for saffron production and nothing else.

Add in that it’s incredibly cheap (per expensive selling unit) to transport, because it’s so light and compact - it’s pretty close to the theoretical ideal for an export product - and it’s just not something we could competitively do.

[Tinkertoy]

@Harmonious Discord

You want it to get full sun and have a good loose organic soil. Water when the soil becomes dry. Put bone meal in the surrounding soil. Spring bulbs do really well over a number of years when you use bone meal. Moles like to eat them, so you can make a wire box and bury it open end up. plant the bulbs in the box. Keep those plants growing as long as you can to store energy for next spring’s flowers. In the fall water the beds in September if dry, because they will be starting to root again.

I found 4 bulbs when I bought my house a few years ago. Didn’t know what they were, moved them to the sunny side of the house and now have around 120 bulbs. But I’ve had to cover them with chicken wire cages because five years ago some idiot captured a bunch of squirrels and released them in our town. We had none before that but he decided they were fun to watch. Now I’m watching them dig up and eat all my bulbs.

[Angua]

Of course in Persian and Indian cooking saffron’s used quite extensively too in both sweet and savoury dishes (hence my mother’s request!). It adds a wonderful flavour in biryanis and pillaus, particularly to a vegetable pillau finished with fried cashew nuts and saffron. Its also used in a lot of sweets too, but I’d need to hit my mum up for some recipes.

[Barbarian]

Don’t saffron crocuses have to be planted in the fall? I’m thinking of getting some for my new place – hey, free saffron!

[Angua]

Oh, and something else that’s just occured to me – where can I buy saffron in Granada?

[BrainGlutton]

Hijack: I don’t know if this is historically true, but in Gary Jennings’ novel The Journeyer, the fortune of Marco Polo’s family is based on saffron. The Polos bought up some cheap, otherwise useless land that could be used to grow crocus flowers, and bought a lot of cheap, otherwise useless slaves (old, crippled, etc.) and set them to work picking out the stamens, and made a fortune.