Saffron -- converting threads to powdered in recipes

Chris Metzler said...

Quoted message said:

Hi. My girlfriend recently went to Turkey and brought me back some
spices as a gift. One thing she brought back was saffron, and I'm
really excited to cook with it. I've never cooked with saffron
before -- it always seemed too expensive. When I look around for
recipes that use it, pretty much all recipes call for saffron
threads; what I have is powdered saffron. I've come across web
pages that say things like "saffron can come either as threads, or
in powdered form"; I've even seen pages that say "westerners
incorrectly consider powdered saffron as inferior to threads." But
then when it comes to it, every recipe I find calls for threads.

So does anyone have any idea how I might convert in a recipe? If
a recipe calls for X in saffron threads, how might that convert to
Y in powdered saffron?

Thanks much,

-c

Mom was a champion at cooking with saffron. Usually just with rice from
what I remember. It sure made rice better, with some flecks of parsley,
iirc.

Powdered saffron could be a combination of saffron and other "stuff".

Steep a little powder in warm water and add it, a little at a time, to a
dish?

Andy

Andy said:

Chris Metzler said...

Quoted message said:

Hi. My girlfriend recently went to Turkey and brought me back some
spices as a gift. One thing she brought back was saffron, and I'm
really excited to cook with it. I've never cooked with saffron
before -- it always seemed too expensive. When I look around for
recipes that use it, pretty much all recipes call for saffron
threads; what I have is powdered saffron. I've come across web
pages that say things like "saffron can come either as threads, or
in powdered form"; I've even seen pages that say "westerners
incorrectly consider powdered saffron as inferior to threads." But
then when it comes to it, every recipe I find calls for threads.

So does anyone have any idea how I might convert in a recipe? If
a recipe calls for X in saffron threads, how might that convert to
Y in powdered saffron?

Thanks much,

-c

Mom was a champion at cooking with saffron. Usually just with rice from
what I remember. It sure made rice better, with some flecks of parsley,
iirc.

Powdered saffron could be a combination of saffron and other "stuff".

Steep a little powder in warm water and add it, a little at a time, to a
dish?

Andy

I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

In Turkey one often comes across a reddish yellow product that is sold
as "saffron" that is actually dried and ground safflower and will give
the same colouring to food as real saffron but the taste is very different.

As for measurements i would start with an 1/8 of a teaspoon soaked in
1/4 cup of boiling hot water for 5 minutes, add to rice and see if it is
strongly flavoured enough for you, adjust according to taste, saffron
is a very subtle flavour, so subtle some people claim not to be able to
taste it.
--
JL

Joseph Littleshoes wrote:

P.s.

Quoted message said:

Andy said:

Steep a little powder in warm water and add it, a little at a time, to
a dish?

Andy

I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

In Turkey one often comes across a reddish yellow product that is sold
as "saffron" that is actually dried and ground safflower and will give
the same colouring to food as real saffron but the taste is very different.

I have read that sometimes "turmeric" is sold as saffron in Turkey,
plus as i understand it there is sold in Turkey, Indian saffron, the
real things, stamens from the crocus flower, and "Turkish saffron" that
is made from something else and used only as a food colouring, there is
a similar red food colouring used in Chinese cooking that can be bought
in big blocks very inexpensively, i just cant recall its name.
--
JL

Quoted message said:

As for measurements i would start with an 1/8 of a teaspoon soaked in
1/4 cup of boiling hot water for 5 minutes, add to rice and see if it is
strongly flavoured enough for you, adjust according to taste, saffron
is a very subtle flavour, so subtle some people claim not to be able to
taste it.
--
JL

Joseph Littleshoes said:

Quoted message said:

I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

The color imparted is the least reliable indicator for saffron... it's
so easy these days to substitute other plant materials and to
artificially color most anything to any color hue imaginable. Plus
there isn't only one type of saffron, there are many types, all
emitting different shades of yellows, reds, orange. And even aomng
the very same crop differnt acres will produce saffron that emits
different color, and flavor. And color is the sense of which humans
have the least memory retention, that's why color charts exist...
humans cannot retain an acurate memory of color variations more than a
second... there are not flavor or aroma charts, not necessary... human
retention for flavor and aroma last a lifetime. The best indications
for saffron is taste and aroma... and of course by examining the
threads.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Joseph Littleshoes said:

I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

The color imparted is the least reliable indicator for saffron... it's
so easy these days to substitute other plant materials and to
artificially color most anything to any color hue imaginable.

What the (explicative deleted) do you think the word "Saffron"
originally meant?
--
JL

Plus

Quoted message said:

there isn't only one type of saffron, there are many types, all
emitting different shades of yellows, reds, orange. And even aomng
the very same crop differnt acres will produce saffron that emits
different color, and flavor. And color is the sense of which humans
have the least memory retention, that's why color charts exist...
humans cannot retain an acurate memory of color variations more than a
second... there are not flavor or aroma charts, not necessary... human
retention for flavor and aroma last a lifetime. The best indications
for saffron is taste and aroma... and of course by examining the
threads.

Sheldon

Joseph Littleshoes said:

Sheldon said:

Joseph Littleshoes wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

Quoted message said:

The color imparted is the least reliable indicator for saffron... it's
so easy these days to substitute other plant materials and to
artificially color most anything to any color hue imaginable.

What the (explicative deleted) do you think the word "Saffron"
originally meant?

Quoted message said:

there isn't only one type of saffron, there are many types, all
emitting different shades of yellows, reds, orange. And even aomng
the very same crop differnt acres will produce saffron that emits
different color, and flavor. And color is the sense of which humans
have the least memory retention, that's why color charts exist...
humans cannot retain an acurate memory of color variations more than a
second... there are not flavor or aroma charts, not necessary... human
retention for flavor and aroma last a lifetime. The best indications
for saffron is taste and aroma... and of course by examining the
threads.

In which language? In English the color saffron is defined thusly,
encompassing a rather wide range:
2 : a moderate orange to orange yellow

Many, many plant materials meet that criteria, therefore by color
saffron is extremely easy to counterfit, and is.... and most anyone
who cooks with saffron knows that. There is no such thing as one hue
for saffron... in fact there is no such thing as one hue for any
thing, even natural prismatically affected light has vast color
gradiations, infinite actually. And no two people on the planet see
color exactly alike.

And I'm not going to play your imbecilic top posting game.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Joseph Littleshoes said:

Sheldon said:

Joseph Littleshoes wrote:

Quoted message said:

>I would just add to what Andy has already wrote by saying that the
>colour of the water you steep the saffron in should turn a beautiful
>cadmium yellow, "Imperial" Chinese yellow if you like, but a pure
>beautiful yellow, any other colour and you have less than pure saffron.

Quoted message said:

The color imparted is the least reliable indicator for saffron... it's
so easy these days to substitute other plant materials and to
artificially color most anything to any color hue imaginable.

What the (explicative deleted) do you think the word "Saffron"
originally meant?

Quoted message said:

there isn't only one type of saffron, there are many types, all
emitting different shades of yellows, reds, orange. And even aomng
the very same crop differnt acres will produce saffron that emits
different color, and flavor. And color is the sense of which humans
have the least memory retention, that's why color charts exist...
humans cannot retain an acurate memory of color variations more than a
second... there are not flavor or aroma charts, not necessary... human
retention for flavor and aroma last a lifetime. The best indications
for saffron is taste and aroma... and of course by examining the
threads.

In which language? In English the color saffron is defined thusly,
encompassing a rather wide range:
2 : a moderate orange to orange yellow

Many, many plant materials meet that criteria, therefore by color
saffron is extremely easy to counterfit, and is.... and most anyone
who cooks with saffron knows that. There is no such thing as one hue
for saffron... in fact there is no such thing as one hue for any
thing, even natural prismatically affected light has vast color
gradiations, infinite actually. And no two people on the planet see
color exactly alike.

And I'm not going to play your imbecilic top posting game.

<----insert obligatory *chortle*

Quoted message said:

Sheldon