SC - Re: saffron

[Sue Clemenger]

A good friend of mine, knowing my interest in medieval cooking, actually brought
back a bag of "turkish saffron" for me when she went to Greece a while ago.  I'd
saved it for quite a while, since I love saffron, and wanted to put this to good
use.  I used it in a cheese tart recipe, and was quite disappointed at the
results--very little additional color, and no taste difference at all, that I
could detect.  Looking back, it must be safflower that I got.
- --Maire, who's solving _that_ problem by ordering and planting her own saffron
crocuses (croci?).

Jessica Tiffin wrote:

> Adamantius said:
> > Recently somebody brought to my home as a gift a
> > bag of safflower, telling me it was Turkish saffron. I did have reason
> > to believe it was Turkish, but it definitely wasn't saffron. I thanked
> > the guest graciously, and quietly addded the bag to my collection of
> > safflower that people keep giving me, telling me it's saffron.
>
> LOL!  Exactly the same thing happened to me, and I handled it in
> exactly the same way... which leads to the logical question, what can
> one actually use safflower _for_?  It doesn't smell much like
> saffron, which is why I haven't used any of mine - I would imagine
> the flavour would be different.  Barring subsitution for saffron, are
> there recipes/cultural cuisines which specifically call for it?
>
> Jehanne
>
> Lady Jehanne de Huguenin  *  Seneschal, Shire of Adamastor, Cape Town
> (Jessica Tiffin, University of Cape Town)
> Sable, three owls rising argent, each maintaining a willow slip vert.
> http://users.iafrica.com/m/me/melisant/stidings.htm
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