Paprika

Paprika is a spice produced by drying and grinding red peppers of the species *Capsicum annuum*, specifically varieties from the Longum group. Though the spice can range from mild to hot, the peppers used are generally milder and have thinner flesh than those made into chili powder. Sweet paprika is made mostly from the fruit’s flesh, with most seeds removed; hotter paprika retains some seeds, stalks, and other parts.

Like all capsicum varieties, paprika traces its origins to wild ancestors along the Amazon River. These peppers were cultivated in ancient times across South, Central, and North America, especially in central Mexico. They reached Europe in the 16th century through Spain and Portugal, then spread from the Iberian Peninsula to Africa and Asia, eventually arriving in central Europe via the Balkans.

Paprika is a frequent and major ingredient in the cuisines of Hungary, Spain, and Portugal, and also appears in many French and German dishes. It is widely used in North Africa and the Middle East.

The spice’s history begins with *Capsicum annuum*, native to northern South America and southwestern North America. Peppers were gathered and eaten in Mexico around 7000 BC and cultivated before 3500 BC. Food writer Alan Davidson suggests Christopher Columbus likely encountered them on his first voyage in 1492 and may have brought plants back to Europe. Spaniards and Portuguese also carried peppers to India and Southeast Asia, and they were quickly adopted in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Europe—reaching Italy by 1526, Germany by 1543, and Hungary by 1569.

Paprika was also taken up in the Ottoman Empire, which ruled central Hungary for much of the 16th and 17th centuries. Industrialized production began near the end of the 17th century and became highly developed by the 18th. The Turkish presence introduced several foods to the region, including filo pastry (which evolved into strudel), pilafs, pitta bread, and paprika. The plant used for Hungarian paprika was first grown in 1569. Central European paprika was hot until the 1920s, when a breeder in Szeged found a plant that produced sweet fruit and grafted it onto others. According to George Lang’s *Cuisine of Hungary* (1994), the earliest Hungarian dictionary reference to paprika peppers was in 1604, using the name *Török-bors* (Turkish pepper). The word “paprika” itself did not appear in Hungary until 1775, when J. Csapé called it “paprika garden pepper” in his *Herbarium*.

The first recorded use of “paprika” in English dates to 1830, when *The Times* mentioned “paprika soup” as a favorite among Magyars, Turks, and Serbians. Elizabeth David noted in *Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen* (1970) that Edwardian cookery books sometimes referred to paprika as “Krona pepper.”

The word “paprika” comes from Hungarian, a diminutive of Serbo-Croatian *papar* (pepper), itself from Latin *piper* or modern Greek *piperi*. Similar words—*peperke*, *piperke*, *paparka*—are used in various languages for peppers, including bell peppers of the Grossum group.

Paprika’s heat level varies, but hot paprika uses milder, thinner-fleshed chilies than chili powder. Sweet paprika consists mostly of the pericarp with over half the seeds removed; hot paprika includes seeds, stalks, ovules, and calyces. The spice’s color—red, orange, or yellow—depends on its carotenoid mix. Yellow-orange shades come mainly from α-carotene, β-carotene, zeaxanthin, lutein, and β-cryptoxanthin; reds come from capsanthin and capsorubin. One study found high zeaxanthin in orange paprika and much more lutein in orange than in red or yellow. Other studies show yellow paprika powder has significantly higher antioxidant capacity than other varieties. Paprika also comes in shape varieties like blocky, mini, and conical.

Paprika is produced in Argentina, Mexico, Serbia, the Netherlands, China, and the United States, but the two best-known producers are Hungary and Spain. It is commonly made by sun-drying peppers, a process that can take up to 10 days for the right consistency.

Hungary is a major source and the spice most closely associated with the country. Lang lists commercial grades of Hungarian paprika: *különleges* (exquisite, delicate), *édesnemes* (delicate, sweet-noble), *félédes* (semi-sweet), *rózsa* (rose), and *erős* (hot). Davidson notes these are in descending order of excellence. The two main growing areas are around Szeged and Kalocsa in southern Hungary.

In Spain, *pimentón* is a powdered spice from small, round fruits of several *Capsicum annuum* varieties. The *Oxford Companion to Food* describes it as a Spanish version of paprika, almost sweet in taste.