I would advise the Hungarian public to switch to Spanish paprika for the time being--but everyone knows it's only good for color.

Incidentally, I believe paprika was introduced relatively recently (e.g., the 18th or 19th century) to upscale Hungarian pantries, when the Napoleonic wars prevented the importation of black pepper. (George Lang's Cuisine of Hungary, from memory)

IIRC, a similar thing happened in India five or six years ago. Because of drought or blight, there was a severe shortage of onions. Onions are apparently a staple of most pauvre Indian cuisine, and the sharp increase in the price of onions actually did turn into something a significant political problem.

...like Korea without kimchi.

>I would advise the Hungarian public to switch to Spanish paprika for the time being--but everyone knows it's only good for color.

It tastes like dirt. Real Hungarian paprika is good stuff. I don't understand why they'd be importing it from SA.

>Incidentally, I believe paprika was introduced relatively recently (e.g., the 18th or 19th century) to upscale Hungarian pantries, when the Napoleonic wars prevented the importation of black pepper.

Sources conflict. Gundel says that peppers were grown in Hungary in the middle of the 18th century (they came to Europe with Columbus), but ground paprika didn't appear until later. And cookbooks did not begin to recommend it in place of pepper until after 1830.

Elek Magyar says the Turks brought it north and it was referred to as 'heathen pepper', but that it was widely adopted in response to the continental blockades. That only makes sense for a brief period tho. And I'm not at all sure such a blockade would have been terribly effective. (Not without the Turks getting involved). Particularly since Austria was often part of the anti-Napoleon Coalitions.

I expect this is more legend than anything.

ash
['All I know is, they had best not mess with my paprika supply.']

I don't understand why they'd be importing it from SA.

Ash,

It's plentiful in Brazil. My father-in-law has several trees growing wild on his farm. Indians used it to color their face.

It's not bad, at least in my experience.

" . . a fiery seasoning . . "

Surely some jests. After living in Europe for several years and enjoying Hungarian cuisine (a break from German) fiery isn't the word. A mild tingler would be more accurate. Habenrano is fiery.

This truly is a crisis. Paprika serves much the same purpose in Hungary as MSG does in China: a pinch of it can add inexplicably bold and articulate flavor to just about anything. Worse yet, this situation could shape up to be another example of EU suppression of local artisanship.

It's time for Soros to bail Hungary out....

There's some fine smoked paprika coming out of New Zealand. Perhaps some in-kind humanitarian aid is in order?

But if they think South America was the origin, then the good Szegedi paprika I have in my pantry is OK. Right?

(tries to keep from screaming over the desecration of the paprika supply)

Ahem. all right, I'm better now...

Peanuts always have some aflatoxin. I eat peanuts. If the object is to reduce aflatoxin, consider me off peanuts for the duration of the crisis. :)