spice history saffron linn

Saffron Linn

Saffron, which comes from the yellow pistiles of the saffron crocus, is the most precious of all spices. It requires at least 100000-150000 crocuses, which

must be picked and cleaned by hand to extract one kilogram dried saffron.

Cleande by hand

Saffron is used as a spice in some bread varieties "saffron bread". Nowadays we mix saffron in the dough, but in earlier times the buns were with painted with saffron water, when just finished baking when taken out of the oven.

two flowers of saffron crocus

History

In more than 3000 years saffron has been cultured.

In the old times saffron was used as medicine and saffron has been said to curee over 90 diseases.

In ancient Egypt and the Greece, prostitutes used saffron as perfume.

The cultivated saffron crocus sativus is a fall blooming, which is not so widely known growing in the wild. It is a sterile triploid mutant of crocus cartwrightianus found in the Eastern Mediterranean area.

In Sweden it is used mainly as saffron buns, but also, for example paella and bouillabaisse