Kalocsa Paprika

It's hard to imagine Hungarian cuisine without this colorful, flavorful spice.

Many different kinds of peppers are cultivated in Hungary, including those grown specifically to be dried and ground into paprika. These include several kinds of long red peppers commonly used for making the milder paprikas, and small round red "cherry peppers" used for some of the hotter varieties of the spice.

After being picked, the peppers are left to rest for two to three weeks, to let their flavor and color develop even further. Then they're washed, dried, and ground into a powder. Paprika is now such an important cash crop that the locals even call it "Red Gold."

Before the Industrial Revolution, farmers would string all their ripe peppers by hand, hang them up in a protected place to dry, and then complete the drying process in large earthenware ovens.

The dried peppers were crushed underfoot, then ground into a fine powder by hand, using a huge mortar with a large pestle. Water mills, windmills and steam engines eventually replaced the hand method for grinding paprika. Today modern automatic machines wash, dry, crush, sort and grind the peppers all in one continuous process.

Much of Hungary's paprika comes from the fields and factories around the small town of Kalocsa, near the Danube River, and the larger industrial city of Szeged, on the Tisza River, both located on the country's Southern Great Plain.

These two centers of paprika production have just the right combination of soil characteristics, temperature, rainfall and sunshine necessary to cultivate the pepper plants successfully. Harvesting starts at the end of the first week in September and lasts for about a month, depending on weather conditions.

For three to four weeks every autumn, more than 8,000 acres of fields around Kalocsa are filled with farm workers picking bright red peppers and stacking them in small wooden crates or big plastic mesh bags. In the town itself, strings of shiny red peppers hang from balconies, porches, and eaves, like colorful ribbons on a peasant girl's costume. And on some of the houses, long cylindrical mesh bags full of peppers are suspended from the eaves like giant sausages.

During September the entire town, its population swelled by busloads of tourists, celebrates the pepper harvest with a paprika festival called "Kalocsa Paprika Days," featuring exhibitions of food products, a variety of sports competitions and a cooking contest (with paprika as an ingredient, of course).

The highlight of the festival is the Paprika Harvest Parade, complete with local bands and colorful folk-dancing groups, followed that evening by a Paprika Harvest Ball.

Regardless of the time of year, however, the visitor is never far removed from paprika in Kalocsa. In addition to its pepper fields and commercial paprika factories, Kalocsa has a Paprika Street and a Paprika Museum. Kalocsa pepper is mild.

Strings of dried peppers festoon store windows and roadside stands. Souvenir shops are filled with folk-art gifts adorned with images of bright red peppers, including hand-painted eggs, decorated dishware and embroidered linens.

Walls of houses and restaurants are painted with murals depicting traditional floral motifs, often with red peppers incorporated into the design. A sleepy little town that was once just an agricultural center has become a tourist mecca, especially at harvest time, attracting travelers from all over Europe and beyond.

Types of Hungarian Paprika

The Hungarians produce a range of paprikas from mild to very hot—although the milder versions are used most often in Hungarian dishes. Contrary to popular belief, the brightest red paprika powders are the mildest and sweetest in taste, whereas the pale-red and light-brown colored paprikas are usually the hottest.

Heat levels range from édes (sweet, mild) to félédes (semi-sweet, medium-hot) to erös (hot). Füszer on the package just means spice and orlemeny means "powder." What's important is the type of paprika you choose.

· Különleges (Special): The brightest red paprika of all, with a good aroma and very mild, sweet flavor.

· Édesnemes (Noble Sweet): Bright red in color but with only a mildly spicy flavor. Most of the paprika exported to the rest of the world is this type.

· Csípmentes Csemege (Delicate): Mild-tasting, richly flavored, light- to bright-red paprika.

· Csemege (Exquisite Delicate): Similar in color and aroma to "Delicate," but with a slightly spicier taste.

· Csípös Csmege (Pungent Exquisite Delicate): Similar in color and aroma to Delicate and Exquisite Delicate, but a bit spicier in flavor. One of the most popular of the hotter varieties of paprika in Hungary.

· Félédes (Semi-Sweet): Medium-hot paprika.

· Rozsa (Rose): Paler-red in color, with a strong aroma and hot-spicy taste.

· Erös (Hot): The hottest variety, pale rust-red to light brownish-yellow in color.

Kalocsa paprika is often packaged for retail sale in small cloth bags sometimes stamped with the image of a ripe pepper plant, or decorated with red, white and green ribbons, the colors of the Hungarian flag. Paprika also comes in less expensive, but still colorful, tin boxes and even cheaper cellophane or plastic bags.

In the United States, where Kalocsa paprika is less commonly available, you're more likely to find tins of paprika from Szeged at gourmet stores and major supermarkets.

Paprika peppers are also made into bright-red pastes and packaged in cans, jars, and even tubes (like toothpaste).

Since all powdered paprikas lose color and flavor as they age, it's best to purchase paprika that was harvested and milled during the past year. Keep it in your kitchen cabinet, away from heat and sunlight, and use it within a year after buying it.

As the Hungarians say, "Jó étvágyat kívánunk!" ("Enjoy your meal!")