
For many visiting food lovers, it comes as a great surprise, then, to
discover that our rural Pennsylvania Dutch cooks are connoisseurs of the
world’s most expensive and exotic spice—saffron. Elsewhere, this
garden spice is often shrouded in an aura of exotic mystery, but
Lancaster County gardeners have been growing it alongside the cabbages
for centuries.
Saffron usually means classical European cuisine, not American farm
food. It is meant for risotto in Milan, and bouillabaisse in Marseilles,
and paella in Madrid. But thankfully, it is also meant for chicken pot
pie in Lancaster County.
Here, saffron is not the extravagant luxury it is thought to be
elsewhere. Roman emperors bathed in saffron-scented waters and carpeted
their theaters with the purple blossoms. Mennonites never did all that.
Saffron, for us, means food—chicken dishes. This crocus provides the
deep yellow color and pungent flavor that is critical for the success of
some of our most traditional dishes. Actually, any dish using poultry
or egg noodles is fair game for saffron in Lancaster County. Our
traditional cuisine calls for this yellow seasoning so frequently that
we have been referred to as the “Yellow Dutch.”