Last year produced a bumper crop of peppers, and we took to eating, canning, and drying peppers to keep up. After grinding a batch of jalapeno peppers, Maggie wondered aloud if it were possible to make paprika. According to Wikipedia, paprika is generally produced from mild, thin-skinned red bell peppers. There are eight grades or types of Hungarian paprika alone, ranging from mild to hot, and an additional three types of Spanish paprika, which can have a smoky flavor due to being dried over fire.
Wikipedia was not helpful in suggesting specific plants. The matter was forgotten until the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue arrived this past winter. While looking at different pepper varieties, we can across Feher Ozon paprika peppers, which the catalogue stated "Originated in Hungary. All-around excellent paprika pepper for quality and performance." Since we had room in the garden plan, we decided to give paprika production a try. We found a pack of Feher Ozon paprika pepper seeds at the annual Garden Expo in Madison in February, started the plants in March, and transplanted them to the garden in May.
By late July, the short plants had set large white peppers, that gradually turned orange. This seems like a plant that would do well in a pot. The photo on the seed packet showed white, yellow, orange, and red peppers. Since paprika in the store is red, I assumed the peppers were picked when red. The first pepper turned red and promptly rotted, so we started picking them in the orange stage. The peppers were sliced and placed in the dehydrator, which produced dark red dried peppers. Curiously, the paprika powder is yellowish-orange. According to Wikipedia, paprika can range in color from yellow to orange to red, with red being common.
The dehydrating peppers gave off a very pleasant sweet odor as they dried. The powder tastes and smells like peppers, which I suppose should not be suprising. I went to the cupboard to get some store-bought paprika to do comparison, and found that Henry used the last of the paprika. We will need to find a goulash recipe to do a test.
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