Sometimes known as “red gold,” saffron is the world’s most expensive spice. It’s made from the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus flowers; the stigmas are so delicate they must be harvested by hand in a painstaking process. (It takes about 200 hours to pick enough stigmas to produce just 1 pound of saffron, which typically sells for thousands of dollars.)

Luckily, a little saffron goe... read more