Saffron vs. Sassafras: A Crocus Thread and a Gumbo Leaf Compared

Saffron and sassafras share a first syllable and not much else, and neither can stand in for the other. Saffron is the dried stigma of a crocus, used in small amounts to turn food gold and give it a bitter, aromatic note. Sassafras is a North American tree, and in the kitchen it’s filé, the ground dried leaves that season and thicken Louisiana gumbo. Its root bark once flavored root beer, but sassafras oil is about 80 percent safrole,¹ and US rules have kept safrole and sassafras oil out of food since 1960.²

Side by side

The two compound rows don’t line up. They list different molecules doing different jobs, measured different ways.

Two plants from opposite ends of the world

Saffron crocus is known only in cultivation. Kew calls it a cultigen from Greece,⁹ and a 2022 review of genetic and artistic evidence concludes it most likely arose and was domesticated in ancient Greece.³ Iran now grows most of it.⁷ An American Herbal Products Association history lists the next producers as India, Greece, Afghanistan, Morocco and Spain, without dates.¹⁰

Sassafras is native from southeastern Canada through the central and eastern United States. Filé has Choctaw roots. Robert Caldwell, writing for the Louisiana encyclopedia 64 Parishes, says many Choctaw foods once used powdered sassafras,⁵ and Morgan Randall writes that the Choctaw gathered and dried the leaves to thicken and flavor soups.¹¹ You’ll often hear that sassafras is “the only spice native to America.” We couldn’t find a source for that.

What each does in the pot

Saffron colors and perfumes. Crocin supplies the color, picrocrocin the bitterness and safranal the aroma, and the ISO 3632 quality test measures all three.⁴ A little goes a long way. Crumble the threads into a bit of warm water or stock before adding them.

Filé seasons and thickens. Caldwell describes filé’s flavor as sweet, earthy, peppery and thyme-like.⁵ Katzer finds the leaf aroma weak but fresh and lemony, from an oil that makes up only about 0.4 percent of the leaf.¹ The root beer smell people credit to sassafras belongs to the root. Katzer notes that sassafras oil was what flavored root beer in the United States.

Timing matters more for filé. Caldwell says filé added after the heat is turned down seasons a gumbo, soup or stew, and it’s most often sprinkled on as a finishing garnish. Cook it in early and the pot turns viscous and stringy, like ropes when poured.⁵ Filé is one of the three common gumbo thickeners, along with okra and roux. None of our sources name the compound that does the thickening.

Safety is the real difference

Sassafras. US rules treat food as adulterated if it contains added safrole or oil of sassafras, or if its main purpose is to carry them, with sassafras tea as the regulation’s example. The rule cites an order of December 3, 1960.² Two sassafras ingredients are still allowed as flavorings, both only without safrole: a safrole-free water extract of the root bark,¹² and the leaves, listed among natural flavorings with the limitation “safrole free.”⁸ We found no FDA statement addressing filé powder by name.

The National Toxicology Program lists safrole as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, based on evidence that it caused liver tumors in two rodent species. It reports no epidemiological studies of people exposed specifically to safrole.¹³ Katzer considers sassafras leaves and filé generally harmless in cooking amounts because their safrole content is low, while strongly discouraging use of the root.¹ That’s his call. In the EU, safrole can’t be added to food as such, but the maximum levels for compound foods don’t apply where the only flavoring ingredients added are herbs and spices.¹⁴

Saffron. The Drugs.com monograph says amounts above 5 g, far more than any food uses, have uterine stimulant and abortive effects.¹⁵ At kitchen quantities, the safety question is fraud, not toxicity. See saffron on adulteration.

Can one stand in for the other?

No. Saffron has none of filé’s thickening or its herbal, lemony flavor, and filé has none of saffron’s color or aroma. What to use instead depends on the job:

• For saffron’s color, turmeric, safflower or annatto, with ratios and sources on saffron substitutes.
• For filé’s thickening, okra or roux, its two traditional partners,⁵ or a cornstarch slurry. See gumbo filé substitutes and sassafras substitutes.

Where each belongs

Saffron. It goes into Mediterranean and Asian dishes, especially rice and fish, English, Scandinavian and Balkan breads, and bouillabaisse. Paella is, by definition, saffron-flavored rice. Persian jeweled rice, halva and risotto get named a lot too, but we didn’t find a qualifying source for them.

Sassafras. Filé belongs to gumbo. Caldwell writes that filé gumbos and okra gumbos were traditionally separate dishes, partly because okra was seasonal,⁵ and Randall describes filé as what cooks reached for when okra was out of season.¹¹ Sassafras root once flavored root beer alongside sarsaparilla, juniper and vanilla, until the FDA banned sassafras oil and safrole as food additives in 1960.¹⁶

What isn’t known

• No measured safrole content for retail filé powder.
• No price comparison between the two. The saffron figure is a ceiling, not a market price.
• No production figures for sassafras or filé.
• No source we reviewed says which compound gives filé its thickening power.

Related

• Saffron, saffron substitutes, cooking with saffron and why saffron is so expensive
• Sassafras, sassafras substitutes, gumbo filé powder and gumbo filé substitutes
• Safflower vs. saffron and saffron vs. turmeric
• Cajun seasoning and Creole seasoning