A spice made from the dried and ground seeds and fruits of red chile peppers, capsicum annuum, a member of the nightshade family. One of the most popular spices in the world today, it is the hallmark of Hungarian cookery.
There is little doubt that these peppers originated in the Americas, as they are already mentioned in a letter from the ship's physician on Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1494. The mechanics of its spread into Europe are a little more complicated. They were brought back at the end of the 15th century to Spain, where they were grown as decorative plants in the gardens of Seville. But it was the Turks who, with their trade contacts across their vast empire, from India to the Balkans, first spread paprika as a culinary spice.
Though other European countries were growing paprika by the middle of the 16th century, it was the dry, fertile soil of Hungary that let it flourish. Records tell of Hungarian herdsmen sprinkling the powder on fried bacon or mixing it in with gravy to liven up the bland flavour of various foods. The Szeged and Kalocsa regions to this day still grow the world's best paprika. Soon, the cuisine spread along the Danube to the rest of Europe, until the demand grew so great that paprika production was industrialized in the 19th century.
Whether by machine or by hand, the vast paprika fields are harvested every September. The ripe, red fruits are collected and dried, traditionally in the sun before being roasted in large kilns, then pounded in a mortar into a fine powder. Modern, industrialized production exposes the paprika to great heat, unfortunately removing much of the high vitamin C content and giving the final product a much blander taste.
There are several different kinds of paprika; of course the major division is between the "hot", Spanish or American varieties, and the "sweet" Hungarian type. Much of the spiciness depends on how much of the seeds and veins are left in before the plants are crushed; most paprika sold in America takes advantage of the automatic de-veiner invented in 1859 for the sake of quality control. It is highly recommended to grow your own. The most notable Hungarian types are:
- Delicate: variable colour, rather mild with a very strong aroma. Similar to Rose paprika.
- Rose: the traditional paprika grown in Szeged, rather mild, with a strong aroma.
- Noble Sweet: the most common paprika, very mild, bright red in colour.
- Half-Sweet: a mixture of Noble Sweet and other, more pungent paprikas.
- Hot: almost brown in colour; generally, the redder the colour, the milder the paprika.