Just wild about saffron Print E-mail
Written by Claire Hopley, 2006   

Picture acres of mauve autumn crocuses. In the cold of early morning, pickers harvest the flowers and rush them home to women called mondadoras who strip away the petals and collect the three stigmas of each flower, handling around 10,000–12,000 flowers a day. 

They must work fast, before the petals begin to decay. After drying, the stigmas from 250,000–300,000 blooms weigh only 1kg. This is the saffron harvest in Spain, one of the world’s major growers and its largest exporter.

The work is carried on as it always was, by families working by hand. India, Iran, Greece and Italy also grow saffron, and as the name of the town of Saffron Walden reminds us, it used to be grown in England too. Ralph Holinshed, the 16th-century historian claimed, “The Saffron of England is the most excellent of all other.”

A century later John Evelyn noted that Spanish and Italian housewives, “generally make use of this Flower, mingling its golden Tincture with almost everything they eat”. In his time English saffron was still used in festive breads, but more commonly in medicines.

The labour-intensive work of harvesting saffron makes it costly. It is sold in tiny quantities – 1g is standard. Often referred to as the world’s most expensive spice, it is also one of the oddest. Sometimes it comes as a powder, sometimes as a tangle of threads – both cornelian red in colour. It must be soaked before using. Almost immediately, it turns liquid yellow, which soon darkens to a ruddy brown. But when the saffrony liquid is mixed with other ingredients in a dish, it turns bright yellow and infuses them with its inimitable aromas of new-mown hay and honey.

Saffron was especially important in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when cooks in aristocratic households loved nothing better than changing the colour of food. They used spinach juice for green, sandalwood for red and saffron for yellow or gold. Both its golden hue and its high price marked saffron as a special-occasion spice. And that’s still true today. In India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, saffron-tinted birianis and pilaus are wedding specialties; in Turkey, zerde, a saffron-tinted, nut-laden rice dessert, is served at weddings.

In Sweden, artfully twisted saffron buns called lussekatter are the must-have for St Lucy’s Day on 13 December, when the eldest girl of the family dons a crown of candles and carries a tray of coffee and lussekatter into her parents’ bedroom for a holiday breakfast. In Cornwall, too, saffron buns and loaves are festival breads, a particular feature of St Peter’s Day fêtes in June, but also served at special occasions such as church anniversaries.

In Spain, paella dyed with saffron and dotted with shellfish, vegetables and chicken, rabbit or snails is the dish to relax over at Sunday lunch. Indeed, with the reputation as producers of the world’s best saffron, the Spanish love la comida amarilla – “the yellow meal”. The Spanish also use saffron in fish soups.

New ways

Inventive cooks are taking this ancient spice and using it in new ways. Richard Stevens of La Gamella in Madrid has created a salad of navy beans, peppers and cucumbers with a saffron vinaigrette. Joyce Molyneux invented a honey-saffron custard for serving with gooseberries or damsons. Antonio Carluccio follows the traditions of southern Italy and uses saffron in a dish of macaroni with sardines, fennel and raisins. Rick Stein uses saffron in crab and leek pasties as well as many other fish dishes. Gordon Ramsey makes a saffron-flavoured pasta dough and turns it into ravioli filled with lobster and langoustines. He also purées pears with saffron and pear eau de vie to make a delicious little dessert for serving with shortbread and cream.
 
Sometimes, though, unscrupulous cooks who want the lovely colour of saffron are not above faking it by using alternatives. Turmeric is one option, especially in rice dishes, though its dramatic flavour certainly justifies its use for its own sake rather than as a low-cost substitute. Marigold petals were used as saffron substitutes in Renaissance England, and these and other marigolds as well as safflowers are still used in some Mediterranean countries. They add colour but not flavour, so when buying saffron make sure you get the real dark-red threads or powder, not yellowish substitutes.

Even when you are sure you have real saffron, inspect the threads. Skilled mondadoras remove as much as possible of the pale end of the stigma, so the very best coupé grade is dark red to the end, with no yellow-white bit remaining.

Like all herbs and spices, saffron has particular food affinities. It partners rice supremely well, as shown in the string of classic rice dishes that stretches from East to West: from the pilaus of India and Iran to the pilafs of Turkey, the risotto Milanese of Italy, and the paellas of Spain. Mild meats such as chicken and veal go well with these saffron rice dishes, as does lamb.

Saffron also appears in special breads in northern Europe. This affinity with carbohydrates extends to pasta, especially in Sicily. In addition, many fish stews including the bouillabaisse of southern France and the zarzuela of Spain call for saffron as one of the essential flavourings.

Mussels taste particularly delicious in a saffron-flavoured soup, and fine white fish such as sea bass, halibut and swordfish can all be enhanced with saffron sauces. Indeed, Sicilian platters of frutti di mare often come with a saffron sauce whose brightness is reinforced with egg yolks and lemon. Saffron appears less often in sweet dishes, though Perdita, the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, hurries off to buy saffron and raisins for the holiday pies she is planning to make with wardens – an old variety of pear.

Raisins often appear in saffron dishes, as do nuts, a typically Arabian combination of ingredients that shows that the Arabs brought saffron with them when they ruled southern Italy and Spain in the early Middle Ages. The frequency with which saffron colours white foods – rice, pasta, breads, even pears, cauliflower and potatoes – also reminds us of the days when its brilliant yellow made it the star of medieval kitchens.

Saffron can also enhance other colours. For example, it makes a delicious coral-coloured broth when teamed with tomatoes in fish stew. In potato and parsley soup, it brightens and fixes the green of the parsley.

30-minute soak

If saffron is new to you, note that while most recipes tell you to soak it for a few minutes, you will get more colour and flavour if you extend this to at least half an hour. Recipes typically suggest using ‘a pinch’ of saffron, but pinch into a nest of saffron threads and you may easily get a whole gram. It’s easier to scoop with a measuring spoon, squashing it down just a little. One gram of saffron threads is generally enough for four recipes, each serving around six people.

Saffron powder sometimes comes in 0.25g sachets, enough for one recipe. Some cooks prefer to use saffron threads because it’s easier to be sure it’s the genuine article, and they like the wiggly traces of the stigmas in the finished dish; others choose powder because it dissolves completely. Once you start using saffron, you’ll quickly discover what sort and how much to use.

Please visit our Recipe Index for some saffron recipes to get you hooked. 
 
[ Back ]