The secrets of Hungarian kitchen – Paprika
The Hungarian kitchen is known everywhere among the bests all over the world. It is not a coincidence as its tastes, scents, flavours are almost inimitable. Due to among others the home produced ingredients: vegetables, meat, spice. One of the world-famous of the latter is the Hungarian paprika.
The taste, colour and scent of ruby spice from the area of Kalocsa and Szeged are unique and can not be confused with any other paprika of any place of the world. According to some gurmen it is more special than erstwhile the original that had been brought from the New World by Cristopher Columbus. The roots of its domestic production get back to the 17th century. It is interesting that the spice that started its conqueror trip from the lands of Spain had not arrived to us from the west. As many other things, this had been brought to Hungary by the Turkish people.
Its ancient Hungarian name: “Turkish pepper” also proves it. At the beginnings it was raised in little vdlages within the area of Kalocsa on the bank of the river Danube and was used as herb. Later in a grounded form it appeared as a saucer of the meals of our ancestors. A capucine monk having power in Bataszek writes about the paprika grown in the area at the end of the 1700: “Citizens of Decs, with Hungarian and Tartar origin, that can be named water residents, represent the Hungarian nature in an excellent way.
The spice of their food is something red bestia, it is called paprika that is hot like devd.” The paprika is the soul of the home kitchen and it would be indispensable to have a Hungarian course without it. It is a remarkable characteristic element of the goulash, fish soup, stews, letcho and thousands of other typical domestic meal.
The paprika had been applied only as herb and spice at the beginning, later widespread as a vegetable in Hungary. The citadel of the growing of the white-hearted, characteristic, fragrent paprika is Mezőföld and its capital, Cece town and its area. Due to the Bulgarian gardeners settled down here in the middle of the 19’1′ century the growing of the vegetables and the paprika was boomed.
By their work besides the paprika of Cece several ennobled types appeared still used. The green paprika, besides its gastronomic values, got other prize for Hungary, too. Albert Szent-Györgyi, who received a Nobel-prize for his invention, in 1937 had found the vitamin C in this vegetable for the first time in the world.
