We know and appreciate saffron today primarily as a highly aromatic as well as color-intensive kitchen spice. In fact, its field of application is much more diverse, since the coveted stigmas of the saffron crocus, thanks to numerous valuable ingredients, are also suitable as a dye for fabrics and inks, for artists' paints and even as an ingredient in medicinal or cosmetic products. Would you have known? The Egyptian queen Cleopatra is fondly said to have even bathed in saffron. In the Middle Ages, anyone who tried to counterfeit it and got caught had to reckon with draconian punishments and, in the worst case, ended up at the stake together with his counterfeit goods or was buried alive. In fact, saffron was considered so precious for a long time that the red threads were literally weighed out with gold. But what is the reason that it has lost none of its fascination to this day? Is it the labor-intensive cultivation of the plant, the lengthy harvest? Or the unique taste? The authors, who themselves cultivate saffron in Switzerland, get to the bottom of these and other exciting questions about saffron in this opulent reference work. They let colleagues in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol have their say, pass on their own knowledge and even provide a small guide for growing saffron in the home garden. Who likes to cook, moreover, comes in the richly illustrated recipe section with its extraordinary creations fully at his expense.