Re: [CH] Paprika Question
Dr. Anna BUCSICS (bucsics@ping.at)
Thu, 05 Nov 1998 22:33:54 +0100
Here are some more infos about Hugnarian "paprika" for non-Hungarians:
"Paprika" is any member of the capsicum family.
"E'des" means sweet
"nemes" means noble, i.e. high quality
"csipös" means pungent or hot
Those are the most important qualifiers on a package of Hungarian
paprika (the dried red powder kind). Hot, coarse types tend to be
somewhat brownish in color, the "e'des nemes" kind is a purer red. tend
to be more The "sweet" varieties are used for color, flavor and to some
extent, thickening a dish. the usual procedure ist to heat some
shortening (oil, rendered bacon or poultry fat) and add the paprika to
this (you may have added onions, garlic or meat before). After stirring,
add some water or wine immediately (!!!), or the paprika will burn and
taste bitter. Then add any other ingredients. This is the basic recipe
for "goulash", "paprikas", et cetera.
Thoughtful hosts serve crushed (hot) dried red paprika on the side, for
those who like their dishes really hot. When I was a child in Hungary,
the usual table spices were salt and paprika (served in open "bowls"),
instead of the traditional salt and pepper shaker. This has changed, at
least more "modern" restaurants - a pity.
To my knowledge, paprika was introduced to Hungary by monks, but I
couldn't give you a source on that. The center of production is in the
southeast (Szeged). This is where Albert Szent-Györgyi isolated enough
vitamin C from paprika to prove that it is identical to ascobric acid
(for which he won the Nobel prize for Medicne or Physiology in 1937).
Also, the pioneering work on capsaicin and pain-sensing nerve endigs was
done in Szeged by Jancso', Szolcsa'nyi and Jancso-Ga'bor in the 1960's
and 1970's.
Hope this is of interest to some of the ChileHeads. I don't know too
much of the capsicum varieties grown in Hungary. Most of them are not
hybrids, so you can grow your own if you get hold of a "necklace" of
dried peppers (this is made by drawing a thin string through the stems
of the peppers). Maybe someone else does.
Anna Bucsics