I was watching a program called “Food Safari” (Pakistan episode). It is an aussie program and available on youtube. They showed how to make Sindhi biryani and it seemed so better than the biryani my mom makes. One of the spice used in it was saffron. I asked my mother to use it while making biryani, While I was telling that to my mom, my father interrupted and told me that the price of Saffron is nearing Rs 100,000 per kg. I calculated and it seems you need few thousand Rupees of Saffron to make a biryani for one time.
My questions:
Is the price quoted by my father is true?? Or was he just joking?
If thats the true price then what makes it so expensive??
What place this spice is native to??
I'm not sure exactly sure what's the exact price of Saffron but it's true that it's the world's most expensive spice. It's cultivated in Spain and in India, in Kashmir region, only, I believe.
Saffron are the stigmas from the crocus sativus flower (see image below). There are only 3 stigmas (referred to as saffron threads) per flower. Saffron is hand harvested so you can understand why it is so prized and so expensive. About 14,000 threads (actually the dried stigmas of the crocus flower) equals one ounce of saffron, so that should give you an idea of the labor intensive process that goes into harvesting saffron threads.
Re: Saffron
Oh yes it is expensive. But u dont put in a lot of it at a time. I mean i dont think u would ever need to by a kilogram. It comes in small boxes n u use only a few strands at a time