Britain's Secret Saffron Story
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Saffron is one of the world's most evocative spices, shrouded in myth and mystery and conjuring up images from the ancient Silk Road. Often seen as 'expensive', 'complicated' or perhaps for a special occasion, for British food writer Yasmin Khan, the spice was a store cupboard stable. Because of her mother's Iranian heritage, as a child she ate it almost every day.
Later, Yasmin's love affair with saffron inspired her to travel across Iran, documenting the country's rich culinary heritage in her book 'The Saffron Tales'. On her journey she learnt that the saffron crocus was cultivated in Iran by the 10th century BC and today has multiple uses in perfuming a variety of Iranian dishes. But she also made another discovery, that saffron has a unique and mysterious British history, that brings this magical spice, much closer to home.
In this programme, writer Pat Willard, chef Charlie Hodson, botanist Dr Sally Francis and community grower Ally McKinlay help to unfold an almost forgotten British saffron story, one that captivates and entrances everyone that comes into contact with it.
Presented by Yasmin Khan Produced by Clare Salisbury.
Transcript
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| 0:55.0 | I've pulled this out as one of my favorite lines in the book. |
| 0:59.0 | There's no getting around the fact that buying saffron is a lot like buying illicit drugs. |
| 1:04.0 | The concerns for purity and potency are the same, as are where it's grown and how it's processed. |
| 1:11.0 | You may also have to go through some trial and error before you find a reliable and steady supplier. |
| 1:17.0 | For me to get Iranian saffron here, I had to go to one of the Middle Eastern markets and I whispered over the counter, |
| 1:25.8 | Do you have Iranian saffron? |
| 1:27.8 | And the guy actually lowered his voice and he goes, know, don't say that. It came from under the counter and it was very mysterious and so I'm going down as an avioline and in my |
| 1:47.5 | neighborhood carrying this thing. Oh my God! I'm got anything. There's something intoxicating about saffron. |
| 1:58.0 | The heady bittersweet scent, the scarlet hue of the delicate threads, the citrusy earthy flavor. |
| 2:06.4 | I'm Yasmin Khan, a food writer who is half Iranian and I adore Saffron so much that I wrote a cookbook called the |
| 2:14.3 | saffron tales which is dedicated to this bewitching and enchanting spice. |
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