Why is saffron so special

Crocus sativa, or the saffron crocus, flowers in the fall. Each flower has three tiny, threadlike stigmas in the center. These must be removed by hand and carefully toasted to dry. According to "The Cook's Reference: Herbs and Spices by Jill Norman," more than 80, crocus flowers must be grown, cared for, hand-harvested and processed to make one pound of saffron. This special spice has been grown in the Mediterranean and Asia for millennia. It was formerly used as a red-orange dye as well as a spice.

The orange robes of Buddhist monks were once dyed with saffron. The Arabs brought the spice with them to Spain, and now Spain is the world's largest producer of saffron. It is grown around the Mediterranean, in the Middle East and in India. The aroma and flavor of saffron is unique and difficult to describe. It is floral, but not sweet. It is warm and earthy, but not pungent. It is smooth and gentle, yet assertive. It is unmistakable, heady and wonderful. Then, add the liquid to the dish towards the end of cooking.

To really keep the saffron flavor pronounced, we like to keep other spices to a minimum. A small pinch in a large pot of food gives a dish a richer, fuller, and much more aromatic flavor.

We particularly love adding saffron to teas and rice dishes. As a general rule, you want to avoid powdered saffron: it generally disappoints and stick to whole saffron threads, so you can easily identify the color.

Get the maximum from your saffron threads by warming them very gently for a few seconds, pounding them lightly and then infusing them in liquid for a minute or two to help release their glorious color and aroma. Purchase co-op sourced saffron threads from Afghanistan here. Turkey day with less stress and more flavor! Gather around the table and go to town on your tastiest Thanksgiving yet. Be in the know about all our most recent sales and get exclusive access to "The Pinch" a spice and food blog.

What does Saffron Taste Like? What is Saffron? Why is Saffron So Expensive? Is it just its high price? In my palm I have five tiny strands, like pieces of slightly fraying dark red sewing thread, which smell rather like a fruity tobacco.

Four of them I'm placing into a cup and dousing with warm water; they're destined for the cooking pot. The fifth I place on my tongue.

I'm told this taste test is essential to check that what I'm using is proper saffron. And after a few seconds I'm gratified that, despite having languished at the back of my spice cupboard for quite some time, the tiny threads are still capable of imparting the heady floral aroma, the honey notes, and the slight astringency I've been promised.

And the strands in the water are leaching an orangey hue, as they should. Saffron is central to national cuisines from Morocco to the Himalayas, essential to dishes from risotto Milanese to Kashmiri curry. As well as being a sought-after culinary ingredient the versatile spice is also increasingly being added to medications and cosmetics. Alexander the Great bathed his battle wounds with it and drank saffron tea. In the 14th Century it was used to combat bubonic plague.

It is a key ingredient in dishes from Spanish paella, to Persian rice dishes and Indian curries. It is added to products from coffee to salt, skin creams to shampoos. Saffron has been used in traditional medicine to treat menstrual problems, depression, asthma and sexual dysfunction. It has been trialled in research for conditions from memory loss to cancer, but the evidence so far is inconclusive.

And yet the reputation of the spice, dubbed "red gold", still does not glister quite as brightly as perhaps it should. Keith Alaniz, an American soldier-turned-entrepreneur, thinks he understands why. After serving in Afghanistan, he and two other veterans decided to establish a social enterprise based on a crop that could offer locals better returns than illegal opium poppy cultivation.

Their company, Rumi Spice, buys saffron crocuses from local growers and employs Afghan women to do the painstaking work of separating the tiny rust-red stigmas in the centre of the crocus from its petals, stamens and the rest of the flower head, prior to being dried and packed for export.

It's those long laborious hours of work that makes saffron so expensive.