Saffron, the most expensive spice (2018)
gastropod.com
gastropod.com
It’s not a huge town (20k people) but it’s got an absolute gigantic, almost cathedral sized church in part due to the revenues generated from Saffron and the associated markets that sprung up around it.
I would have never guessed that a British town would have been at the epicenter of Saffron's history! Thanks for your comment :)
I did experience supposedly some of its use, but mostly as a coloring agent (yields a nice light orange tint). But for such purpose annato color is much cheaper alternative.
All that saffron rice to my taste is just regular, unlike jasmine rice, for example, which has a sweet floral, acacia-like, scent.
I know, some crocuses may smell very sweet, but those are fresh, not the dried ones like saffron often sold, not speaking that a lot of it may be fake for some 'curious' folks like myself :)
Saffron is expensive, but it takes a very small amount to deliver the flavor, so it shouldn't cost more than US$5 for enough to make this ten times.
My go-to method for most anything Mexican or South Asian.
The only way to cook with these is to make it fat (fat absorbes the taste) and not cook it under high temperature. That’s why the sauce is added at the end in many chinese or japanese dishes.
And of course, adding it at the end uncooked always works wonders.
EDIT: Asked my wife who is a biologist, and her hypothesis, if that’s true, is just that salt added later (independently of heat) just tends to still float and cluster together. So you might get more from an individual bite, especially the first few? Very different from actual spices which do break down under heat of course.
Italians will tell you that it's blasphemous not to put salt to cook your pasta, but there's honestly 0 differences (I suggest trying both ways and seeing that for yourself). What makes a real difference when you cook pasta is cooking it in stock though.
I've also noticed that a lot of salty/garlic-y concentrated products (that are probably already cooked, think Asian pastes) will conserve their taste well when cooked with. I'm still wondering why.
My experience (limited as is), if salt is added in the boiling water prior to putting veggies or meat, it would be eventually absorbed and also diluted with the moisture and the flavor of the veggies and meat. This also reduces the "contrast" between the flavors, thus prompting more salt added at serving.
Here in Italy we have some cultivars and many dishes prepared with saffron, for example “risotto alla milanese” also called “risotto giallo” which means “yellow risotto” and you can distinctly taste the saffron in it.
Also since saffron is expensive some people use too little spice when preparing dishes and this might be the reason why you say it has no taste.
I use it sparingly not because it's expensive, but because it's so powerful that it can easily overpower a dish.
Doing my own research on the topic, found a nice tests to tell real/fake saffron:
https://motherwouldknow.com/how-to-identify-real-saffron-avo...
Well, according to the above, one of flavor/smell references of saffron is paella, the Spanish rice dish, apparently it often lists saffron as ingredient.
Generally, it's described as sweet, flowery, grassy, earthy. I wonder if it smells like fresh corn cobs being boiled with husks.
From another source, it's suggested that cardamon is somewhat similar, but more citrusy and sligtly more pronounced.
I grew up in India where saffron is added on rice, zero-proof drinks, dessert…and even hot milk tea.
Sprinkle a few strands on your morning milk tea!
Crocuses in general are very easy to care for. Most flower in the spring before grass comes back. Saffron blooms in fall. I spelled "spring" in my yard with normal crocuses.