DailyDirt: Really Expensive (Or Just Time-Consuming) Foods

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jan 8th 2016 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Maybe you've heard that the word 'salary' comes from Roman soldiers being paid in salt. That's seems like a fuzzy bit of history, and no one actually knows with certainty how early Roman soldiers were paid, but at some point, they were paid with coinage -- or perhaps with some other kind of allowance to purchase salt. Luckily, most people don't get paid in spices anymore, but there are a few food items that are expensive enough that they could be used as currency. (And if you want to really get off the grid, you might want to know about how much it'll cost to really make everything yourself from scratch.)

Saffron, by weight, is probably the most expensive spice you'll ever consume. It takes about 85,000-150,000 flowers (just the dried stigmas) to produce 1 kilogram of the spice. About 80-90% (or more?) of the world's supply is grown in Iran, and the industry and enthusiasts may start DNA fingerprinting to crack down on fake or diluted saffron. [url]
If you want to spend a lot of money on a sandwich, you could order one with foie gras or truffles... or you could make one from scratch yourself. It'll only take you 6 months and about $1,500 to grow all the vegetables -- including the wheat to make bread -- and to raise and slaughter your own chicken. (Or spend a lot more and order lab-grown meat if you don't like killing animals.) [url]
So you could grow your own saffron, if you really wanted to. When you get good at it, you can probably pick about a thousand flowers an hour, but it'll still take a few more hours to separate out the stigmas and dry them. Not quite a Chia Pet hobby. [url]
If you want to try something exotic, cook a peacock recipe from 1612. Impress your 17th century spice baron friends, and remember that people used to risk their lives for a few valuable spices. [url]

If you've been thinking about doing other things yourself, like learning how to code, take a look at our Daily Deals for a collection of online courses to help you program and/or master some professional skills.

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Filed Under: diy, dna fingerprinting, foie gras, food, peacock, recipe, saffron, salt, spice baron, spices

6 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jan 2016 @ 5:28pm

My goal is to become the first bergamot baron in the American midwest. Very little competition out there.
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- alternatives(), 8 Jan 2016 @ 7:56pm
  
  Re: bee balm
  so what is the bergamot used for?
  
  Besides balm'n bees.
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  - JoeCool (profile), 8 Jan 2016 @ 11:31pm
    
    Re: Re: bee balm
    Most famously? Earl Grey tea. Much further down the list, a scalp cleaning solution.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2016 @ 7:28am
      
      Re: Re: Re: bee balm
      JoeCool got the big one with Earl (& Lady) Grey. I didn't know about the scalp deal...and it's also in some perfumes. I just happen to like Earl Grey, and last week I finally decided to find out WTF I'd been drinking all these years.
      
      Now, to go off on a tangent*: In STTNG's 'All Good Things', there's a scene in which a housekeeper serves a cup of tea to Picard. He then makes a comment that what is supposed to be Earl Grey might in fact be Darjeeling. Given the bergamot, how could there be any confusion?
      
      _____
      * - I'm only asking because this is TD, it's a boring Saturday morning, and I'm trying to break my SOP of googling every damn thing that pops into my head.
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      - klaus (profile), 11 Jan 2016 @ 1:19am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: bee balm
        Speaking of googling every damn thing... I seriously thought you'd misspelled STING and went off looking for a track of his I hadn't heard before called "All Good Things". I didn't get anywhere.
        
        Then I saw "Picard" and thought... muppet.
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      - JoeCool (profile), 11 Jan 2016 @ 8:43pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: bee balm
        Traditional Darjeeling tea is a strong black tea. Given Earl Grey is a strong black tea with bergamot, it might be possible to confuse the two if the bergamot isn't typically strong as well.
        
        Modern Darjeeling tea now has green and white varieties to suit modern tastes. I myself prefer green and white teas to black teas. My own personal preference is a light green or white tea blended with fresh cut peppermint.
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