Paprika

Paprika: History, Varieties and Complete Culinary Guide

Paprika is made from the dried and ground flesh of sweet or mildly hot varieties of Capsicum annuum — the same species that produces bell peppers. It exists in a wide spectrum: sweet paprika (the mildest form, used for colour and mild fruity flavour), hot paprika (from hotter chilli varieties), rose paprika (a medium-hot Hungarian variety), and smoked paprika (pimentón in Spanish — peppers smoked over oak before grinding). Paprika was introduced to Europe after the Spanish brought chillies from the Americas in the sixteenth century; Hungary and Spain developed the world's most sophisticated paprika traditions. Hungarian paprika is fundamental to goulash, chicken paprikash, lecsó, and much of the national cuisine — Hungary's paprika industry based around Kalocsa and Szeged is centuries old. Spanish pimentón — particularly the smoked varieties from the Extremadura and Murcia regions (Pimentón de la Vera has PDO status) — is the defining flavour compound of chorizo, patatas bravas, fabada asturiana, and much of Spanish cooking. The deep red colour of paprika comes from carotenoid compounds including capsanthin and capsorubin.

Varieties and Uses

Sweet paprika: use generously for colour and mild fruity flavour — in goulash, in devilled eggs, sprinkled over hummus. Hot paprika: use as you would chilli powder for heat alongside colour. Smoked paprika (sweet or hot): the most transformative of all paprikas — add to chorizo-style preparations, to baked beans, to tomato sauces, to egg dishes, to rice. A teaspoon of smoked paprika in a simple tomato sauce completely changes its character. Store all paprikas in the refrigerator after opening — the oils in paprika oxidise quickly and the spice goes flat within weeks at room temperature. Bloom paprika briefly in hot oil at the start of cooking (fifteen to thirty seconds) to activate the carotenoids and intensify the flavour.