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From: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Saffron
Message-ID: <1588@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Aug-85 15:12:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1588
Posted: Sun Aug  4 15:12:34 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Aug-85 07:31:53 EDT
References: <216@utflis.UUCP> <3345@drutx.UUCP> <969@mtgzz.UUCP> <575@rtech.UUCP>
Reply-To: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS)
Organization: U of Waterloo
Lines: 57
Summary: 

saff'ron n. crocus; orange coloured flavoring obtained from it; the color
	 a. orange
		[collins minigem english dictionary]

	"pure, immutable, rare and precious, gold has always been the
	royal metal and saffron, the gold of spices.  it is somewhat
	surprising that this, the most exotic spice of all, comes from
	lovely violet-coloured, autumn-blooming crocuses, not at all
	unlike the typical garden crocuses seen in early spring.  they
	are said to have been cultivated originally in Cilicia, the
	southern part of modern Turkey, in an ancient town called
	Corycus.  it is not certain whether the town gave its name to
	the flower or vice versa.

	theophratus, the pupil of aristotle and the founder of botanical 
	science, described it thus:
		the saffron crocus is herbaceous in character ...  but
		has a narrow leaf.  indeed, the leaves are, as it were,
		hair-like; it blooms very late, grows either very late
		or early, according as one looks at the season; for it
		blooms after the rising of the Pleiad (autumn) and only
		for a few days.  it pushes up the flower at once with
		the leaf, or even seems to do it earlier.  the root is
		large and fleshy and the whole plant is vigorous; it
		loves even to be trodden on and grows fairer where the
		root is crushed into the ground by foot; wherefore it
		is fairest along the road and in well worn places.  it
		is propogated from the root.

	the flower of the crocus is violet, but saffron is the
	orangey-red, string-like stigmas which droop out between the
	petals.  it contains three basic chemical substances: a tiny
	amount of volatile oil, which gives it its aroma, picrococin,
	which makes it bitter and crocin, which gives the spice its
	characteristic color.  crocin is water soluble and intensely
	yellow.  only one part added to one hundred and fifty thousand
	parts will turn water bright yellow.

	those ancient mariners, the Phoenicians seemed so addicted to
	saffron that they took it everywhere they went.  the crocuses
	grew in abundance in what was then the Phoenician homeland and
	is now modern Syria and Lebanon."

		[the spice of life - sheldon greenberg and elisabeth
		lambert ortiz, mermaid books in association with
		channel four television company limited, the rainbird
		publishing group limited, london, england]


Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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