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Comment by zoomablemind | Hacker News Reader

Anyone could describe a relative scent of 'real' saffron?

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 :)

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Oftentimes people sell curcuma saying it is saffron to trick customers using a relatively inexpensive alternative, but the taste of curcuma is way different from saffron’s.

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.

> Also since saffron is expensive some people use too little spice when preparing dishes

I use it sparingly not because it's expensive, but because it's so powerful that it can easily overpower a dish.

In medio stat virtus :)

In LA near UCLA in the little Persia district, there is an ice cream store that sells saffron rose ice cream. Of course, Iran is by far the largest producer of saffron.

https://saffronrosepersianicecream.com/

Why not make some for yourself? Then you'll know in the future whether it's the real deal. Saffron rice is very easy: https://www.marthastewart.com/1049924/saffron-rice

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.

I wouldn’t boil saffron or mix it in liquid of high temperature as it will lose most of its taste. Just add it to a warm cup of water and pour it into your dish at the very end.

You're right, I looked at the recipe I used last time (printed) and it's just steeped at 170F like tea.

I am not a great cook, but isn't this true for almost any spice?

Not quite. Many spices do well in a fry pan with a bit of oil. Throw in something like onions when spices become fragrant.

My go-to method for most anything Mexican or South Asian.

Yep, true for salt and pepper and olive oil and garlic and choriander and so many other things that people are a bit too quick to cook with.

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.

Salt?

Yeah, salt can be added at the end instead of during cooking. Bonus: you’ll end up eating less salt for the same effect.

How does that work? Salt is literally just NaCl, how does that "lose taste" under heat? I'm curious about the mechanism if that's true, some chemical reaction where the ions bind to something else?

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.

> ...how does that "lose taste" under heat?

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.

I was told, that salt added early enough, can extract the flavor of other ingredients. So the salt still taste like salt, but it makes other tastes avaiable, which can be good or bad, depending on the dish.

I've experimented a lot with that and honestly I always prefer adding salt at the end.

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.

Some examples of spices that would contradict such a general principle: cinnamon, star anise, black cardamom, fenugreek, bay leaves, cloves. Strong spices tend to be used parsimoniously, but early in the cooking process, so that they could properly infuse the dish with their flavor.

Tbf you’re not talking about ground spices. Also, to get flavors from anis stars, cloves, and others you need to burn/grill them first.

> ...Anyone could describe a relative scent of 'real' saffron?

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.

Warm, honey-like, slightly earthy, very slightly spicy

I'd add floral and metallic too.

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