Saffron noted as hay-like and sweet. Saffron also contributes a luminous yellow-orange colouring to foods. Saffron is widely used in Persian, Indian, European, and Arab cuisines. Confectioneries and liquors also often include saffron. Saffron is used in dishes ranging from the jewelled rice and "khoresh" of Iran, the Milanese "risotto" of Italy, the "paella" of Spain, the "bouillabaisse" of France, to the "biryani" with various meat accompaniments in South Asia. One of the most esteemed use for saffron is in the preparation of the "Golden Ham", a precious dry-cured ham made with saffron from San Gimignano. Common saffron substitutes include safflower
History of saffron of hostility that flared between the declining landed gentry and upstart and increasingly wealthy merchants. The fourteen-week-long "Saffron War" was ignited when one shipment of saffron was hijacked and stolen by nobles. The load, which was en route to the town of Basel, would at today's market prices be valued at more than 500,000. That shipment "was" eventually returned, but the wider 13th–century trade was subject to mass piracy. Thieves plying Mediterranean waters would often ignore gold stores and instead steal Venetian- and Genoan-marketed saffron bound for Europe. Wary of such unpleasantness, Basel planted its own corms. Several years of