The most expensive SPICE in the world

Saffron is currently sold at US $45 per ounce or a dollar and fifty per gram. That is equivalent to $1,500 or about P70,000 per kilo.

It is harvested from the flowers of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) and was first cultivated in the areas surrounding Greece. Not the entire flower is used; only the stigmas or the female sex organ of the plant which are often dried and used in cooking as colouring agent. It has a bitter taste and an iodine-like fragrance caused by chemicals known as picrocrocin and safranal, respectively. It also contains another chemical called crocin that imparts a rich golden-yellow color.

Also known as Autumn Gold because the plant flowers in the autumn, the plant was the product of selective breeding of the Crocus cartwrighttianus to produce a flower with elongated stigmas so that harvesting the stigmas would be made easy. Too much breeding made the flower sterile and the plant can only reproduce with the farmers replanting the corms, an underground bulb similar to that of the garlic bulb.

Iran produces 150 metric tons per year, followed by Greece (6), Morocco (2.5), and Spain (1). But not all saffron is created equal, so the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) set the methods of measurement the colouring strength of saffron. Four empirical grades are set, from IV to I, with the latter considered as the finest quality.

A good type of saffron should be in the range of 230 to 255 degrees of colour. And when I look as these numbers, ahem, they remind me of my blood cholesterol levels, certainly a bit too high but are considered an occupational hazard of the trade.

And anything too much results to something, and with this plant, it is sterility. Too much of this Botany and Chemistry can cause an indigestion (too much blood is diverted from the stomach to the brain to understand this last two paragraphs!).

My treasured readers also know that too much study gives your favourite food columnist a headache and the only cure is … yes, you got it right, a shot of cognac (Pwede na Hennessy, Otard, Remy Martin, Martell, or Courvoisier. My palate is so easy to please!).

All these sudden interest about saffron was the result of a request from the Philippine Culinary Arts, Inc. to have the library of VHS tapes about food and spices converted to DVD format. And in the last four years, I have incurred absences in the cooking arts to convert all my tape collection to digital formats (Mpeg2 and Divx). Allow me to share with you the salient points about the most expensive spice in the video:

One corner of the globe that uses a lot of saffron in their cooking is the harbour of Marseilles, famous for its fish stew called bouillabaisse. Tourists flock to this port to taste the genuine, the original, and the authentic bouillabaisse; unfortunately each restaurant has its own recipe that leds to the saying- "There is no one right bouillabaisse; there are only many wrong ones."

Originally, it was a fisherman's stew prepared from the portion of a catch, which was not sold at the market. A poor man's meal that changes every day, it was made a little special with the addition of a few strands of saffron.

Today, the heavenly recipe calls for chopped onions to be added to the finest olive oil; garlic (chopped, not crushed) are added, then tomatoes (peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped) and then saffron. Then, a touch of ginger and fish stock. Finally, the fish is added in stages, the firm flesh, the delicate parts and lastly, the shellfish.

True aficionados never eat bouillabaisse later than lunch; by afternoon, then say the fish is very old. It is still called a poor man's meal, because it is served now at astronomical prices. After eating bouillabaisse, you can become poor.

Another portion of the video shows the method of growing saffron in Spain. It is one of the most tedious and laborious activities and the harvest lasts only for two weeks. You must stoop to pick the flowers which must be gathered by the thousands, daily.

The stigma is separated from the flower (three in each flower), one by one, daily, before the flowers wilt. And then, it is dried before the stigma becomes finally saffron.

One ounce of saffron (30 grams) comes from 5, 184 flowers. It is also in Spain the rice is combined with saffron to create the culinary treasure of Spain, paella.

It is considered to be an absolute essential paella ingredient (to provide the flavour and taste) and even the smallest amount of saffron added turns the "mere special paella to exquisite".

Consumers say that the best saffron comes from Italy (Abruzzo region in L'Aquila and the San Gavino Monreale, Sardinia) and India (the Kashmiri "Mongra" and "Lacha" saffron) with its high safranal and crocin content, unusually pungent aroma and intense colour.

If it is expensive, then you can be sure fake saffron will not be far behind. They use safflower or turmeric to substitute for the real thing. Saffron adulteration in the past reached a critical level so that the Safranschou Code was ratified and those saffron adulterers were fined, imprisoned, and executed.

What happens if the Code of Kalantiaw was re-established for producers and buyers of pirated DVDs? Ouch!!

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