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Paprika comes from dried and ground
chile peppers, capsicum annuum, which originated in southern Mexico.
Capsicum is a member of the nightshade family which also includes potatoes
and tomatoes. Christopher Columbus is credited with bringing the chile to
Europe. Aristocrats originally cultivated capsicum as ornamental plants
until eventually their culinary value was recognized. By the 1560's, these
peppers had reached the Balkans where they were called peperke or paparka.
The peppers soon migrated to Hungary, now renowned for its paprika. The
Szeged and Kalocsa regions of Hungary are the most well-known producers of
sweet paprika. The Paprika Museum makes its home in Kalocsa, and the city
celebrates its famous spice with the Paprika Festival each year in October.
In the United States, paprika is defined as a sweet, dried, red powder,
which can be made from any type of Capsicum annuum that is non-pungent and
has brilliant red color. However, in Hungary, paprika may very well be quite
pungent.
Sweet Hungarian paprika is considered the best, but others are marketed with
varying degrees of heat and color. It's the climate and soil that makes the
Hungarian variety of capsicum (also referred to as pimiento) mild and sweet,
resulting in the most desirable paprika. The quality of ground paprika also
depends on whether or not the seeds and stems are ground in with the dried
peppers.
Different varieties of capsicum chile pepper will produce from sweet to mild
to spicy hot flavor. The peppers can be round, long or square, and green,
yellow, orange, and bright red in color. The Hungarian fruits for paprika
are long and thin, as opposed to the smaller, more round ones used to make
Spanish paprika. Once harvested, the fruit is completely dried and then
ground into the rich, red paprika powder. Paprika should be evenly and
finely ground, with a shiny uniform color. The redder the color, the milder
the paprika. Conversely, the more yellow the color, the stronger the flavor.
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