Home › The Principles of Cookery › Saffron, Spurious

Saffron, Spurious

The term saffron is often applied to the Carthamus tinctorius, a large thistle-like plant, belonging to the order Compositae. The root is perennial, but the stem herbaceous. It is said to have been originally brought from the East, but it is now naturalised in many parts of Europe, and is, besides, extensively cultivated. In Spain the flowers are used for colouring soups, olives, and other dishes. The Jews in Poland are remarkably fond of this spurious saffron, and mix it with their bread and most of their viands. In Germany it is cultivated in a light, well pulverised soil, and is sown in rows about eighteen inches apart; it is afterwards thinned so as to leave three or four inches between the plants. These begin to flower in September, and the field is then gone over once every week for six or seven weeks, in order to gather the expanded florets, which are dried in a kiln, in the same way as true saffron. The Carthamus is occasionally employed in cookery under the impression that it is the genuine saffron. If too great quantities are used, it produces a purgative effect.