SC - Advice, please!

[Stephanie Rudin]

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The good friar Niccolo, in response to Adamantius:

> Unto the saffron discourse:

> > My suspicion is that you are buying tiny amounts of saffron for too
> > much
> > money.*.........................................*You can pay even =
less
> > for an ounce, in a
> > little tin box the size of your closed fist. That can run somewhere,
> > roughly, between thirty and fifty dollars, but that's an awful lot =
of
> > saffron, perhaps enough to make your chicken recipe roughly 240 > =
times
> > over.......................................... I just didn't want =
you
> > to be made, by random
> > circumstance, to feel that saffron was somehow an unimaginable > =
luxury.

> **** The other, sometimes hidden reality is that there are different
> grades of this "gilded" spice.  The true variety of croqus that gives
>.its little stamens for our delight is a very expensive commodity, $250
> or more a pound.  It does require the magnitude of 10,000 stamen to > =
make
> a pound, though.  There is a variety of that plant that yields a lower
> cost product that is very similar in performance.  It's like cinnamon
> stick.......you got your pure variety and the cheeper South American
> 'knock off' that does quite well, but is just shy of replication.


All right; I'll bite. =20

My spice wholesaler, who is halfway across the country from me but is =
well worth the shipping charges, sells two types of saffron:  Coupe =
grade and Premier grade.  Both are labeled "Spanish Mancha Saffron," =
which is the same name as the saffron I get for $3.50 a gram at Trader =
Joe's in a ridiculously huge glass bottle containing a teensy ziploc bag =
of lovely scarlet threads.

My wholesaler also charges about $3.50/gram for the coupe grade and =
about $4/gram for the Premier Grade.  They also sell by the ounce and =
the pound, but only in the Coupe Grade. =20

Can someone who is more of an expert on saffron give us a little =
dissertation about the different types?  All I know is, every time I use =
it in a dish people rave....  and I really want them to keep raving... =
<grin>


Katerine also writes:


> Hi, Katerine here.  Juana Teresa asks whether saffron that is =
identified > as
> "Spanish" is better than ordinary.  Here's the best answer I can give.

<snip crocuses>

> "Spanish saffron" should be crocus stamens that were grown and > =
harvested in Spain.  While the Spanish climate seems to be good for > =
saffron, I don't know that it's enough better than others to produce a > =
> noticeably different spice.


Can anyone else help here? =20

> A better protection than the label is knowing the provider.  (Once =
you've
> worked with saffron for a while, you can tell it from safflower =
anyhow.)

What are some of the telltale signs?  (Different coloration; different =
reaction in liquid; taste; etc.?)

	always curious,

		- kat


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