Saffron Filaments

Used commonly in such dishes as Spanish paella, Italian risotto, French bouillabaisse, Arabic lamb, Italian sauces and holiday breads to add both color and flavor, saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world. Fortunately, most dishes only require six to eight threads to be used at a time.
Saffron is the stigma of a Crocus sativus flower which blooms for only three weeks every fall. Each bulb produces approximately two to nine flowers per season which contain three long, red-orange stigmas. It takes the handpicked stigmas of one hundred flowers to produce one gram of saffron.