Paprika questions? What does paprika - the spice - come from?!
Paprika questions? What does paprika - the spice - come from?
I know what paprika is. I've eaten it and I use it in cooking, but what I don't know is what it comes from. Is it from a pepper? Also, I just bought Hungarian paprika and I noticed that they have two kinds; hot and "sweet delicacy" (whatever that means...lol). When you buy an American brand of paprika it doesn't differentiate between the two. What are you buying when you buy this unidentified paprika? Also, what kind of paprika, hot or "sweet delicacy" is more appropriate for goulash. I sniffed the "sweet delicacy" and decided to buy that for my goulash since I have to use a half cup of the stuff! Hot might have been a little scary, but which one is more authentic for use in a goulash? Thank you in advance! :-)
Additional Details22 hours ago
I'm trying to make Austrian potato goulash. Which type of paprika is more appropriate for this? The recipe doesn't specify.
Answers:
Hi Kitty! You're getting a lot of good but also conflicting advice. Paul is absolutely right. Hungarian paprika, which is basically the Hungarian brand of pulverized red pepper (matured green peppers, nothing to do with the kind of pepper ground in pepper mills), comes in all sorts, and Austrians (who had access to all varieties -- after all, it used to be the Austro-Hungarian empire) used what they liked best. In general, though, Austrians preferred the milder varieties.
I haven't had potato goulash in a long time, but my grandmother made it a lot after WWII when there was no meat. She used a relatively mild paprika. One thing about Austrian goulash (I don't know if this authentically Hungarian) is that you use a lot of onions, and cook them down to a paste or gravy. This gives the goulash a lot of flavor, so adding a hot type of paprika is not really necessary, and it can overwhelm the sweet-hot onion flavor. You are right that when a large quantity of paprika is called for, it is usually a milder variety. Austrians are really not into gasping at the dinner table because the food is hot.
It is very hard to tell what kind of paprika sold in the U.S.might be authentic. Sometimes German food sites like germangrocery.com are helpful.