Smoked paprika

• pimentón de la Vera

  Spanish — Extremadura

  The protected name. Plain "pimentón" in Spain means paprika generally and is not necessarily smoked — Murcian pimentón is sun-dried and is a different product sold under a word English speakers read as meaning smoked.

• pimentón dulce / agridulce / picante

  Spanish

  The three grades, and the words describe heat rather than smoke: all three are smoked. Dulce is sweet, agridulce bittersweet, picante hot. A recipe naming one and given another changes the heat and not the character.

Sweet, smoky and slightly bitter, with a lingering resinous finish. The dulce grade has no heat at all; picante has a moderate warmth well below cayenne. Its sweetness comes from the sugars in the ripe flesh, which is also why it burns so readily.

Wood smoke first, then sweet dried pepper underneath. The smoke is resinous and settled rather than sharp — it is a fortnight of slow oak rather than a flavouring — and this is the quickest way to tell a genuine product from a treated one.

Deep brick red, generally darker than Hungarian sweet paprika and with a slightly duller surface from the smoke.

A fine, slightly oily powder that clumps a little more than unsmoked paprika.

• Guaiacol and syringol — The smoke, acquired from oak during drying rather than grown. The same two compounds carry the smoke in chipotle and in fire-dried black cardamom, which is why three unrelated spices share a quality.(what guaiacol is, what syringol is)
• Capsanthin and capsorubin — The red carotenoids, and the property the trade grades on. Strongly fat-soluble and destroyed by heat, which governs how the powder must be used.(what capsanthin is)
• Sugars and Maillard products — The sweetness of the ripe flesh, and the reason the powder scorches to bitterness within seconds in a hot pan.

Take the pan off the heat before it goes in. That is the whole technique and it is not optional: the sugars in ripe pepper flesh scorch within seconds at frying temperature and the resulting bitterness cannot be removed from the dish. Stir it into warm fat so the carotenoids disperse, then return the pan to the heat and add liquid promptly. In a long-simmered dish the smoke concentrates as the liquid reduces, so use less than the colour tempts you to.

The defining seasoning of Spanish chorizo, and a base flavour across Spanish cooking — in sofrito, in patatas bravas, dusted over pulpo a la gallega, in stews and rice dishes. Outside Spain its largest modern use is supplying a smoky, meaty depth to dishes with no meat in them, which is a job no other spice in this catalogue does. It is used in quantity for colour as well as flavour, which is why the scorching behaviour matters so much.

• blooming — Stirred into warm rather than hot fat, off the heat, exactly as ordinary paprika is. The carotenoids are fat-soluble and release readily; the sugars burn well below the temperature that would destroy the spice itself, and burnt paprika cannot be rescued.
• frying — The failure mode. Added to a genuinely hot pan it turns brown and acridly bitter in a few seconds, which is why every Spanish and Hungarian instruction is to take the pan off the heat first.
• boiling — Holds up well once dispersed in a liquid, and the smoke in particular is persistent — a long-simmered dish grows more smoky rather than less, so it is added with a lighter hand than the colour suggests.

Look before smelling, which is the reverse of the usual advice. Good pimentón is deep brick red; a faded orange-brown tin has lost the property it was graded on even though it will still smell strongly of smoke.

• Colour faded from brick red towards orange-brown
• Smoke with no sweetness behind it
• Caking into hard lumps

• Photo-degradation of the carotenoids, bleaching the colour the product is graded on.
• Loss of the sweet fruit aromatics, leaving the smoke standing alone.
• Moisture uptake and caking in a damp cupboard.

• A tin rather than a jar or a bag — the traditional packaging excludes light, which is the thing that destroys this product.
• Deep brick red rather than orange-brown.
• The grade stated: dulce, agridulce or picante. A packet saying only "smoked paprika" has left out the useful half.
• A protected-designation mark where the La Vera product specifically is wanted.
• Smoke that smells of wood rather than sharp and chemical, which is the tell for smoke flavouring on unsmoked powder.

Three heat grades — dulce, agridulce, picante — all smoked. Separately, the La Vera designation certifies origin and process. Colour strength is measured in ASTA units in the trade and is rarely stated at retail.

Solanaceae

The La Vera cultivars — Ocales and related types — are grown in the Vera valley in northern Extremadura, and are selected for flesh thickness and colour rather than for heat.

The chilli is a New World plant brought to Spain in the sixteenth century; the smoking tradition is Spanish and is concentrated in the Vera valley in Extremadura, where the autumn is too damp for reliable sun-drying and drying over fire became the practical answer.

• ES (La Vera, Extremadura) — origin. The protected designation. Smoke-dried over holm and Pyrenean oak.
• ES (Murcia) — major producer. Also sells pimentón, and dries it in the sun rather than over smoke — which is why "pimentón" alone does not mean smoked.

Picked fully ripe and red. Under-ripe fruit gives a brown rather than red powder and is graded out.

1. Ripe harvest — Fruit picked fully coloured, in successive passes.Why: Colour is the commercial property and it is only present at full ripeness.
2. Oak-smoke drying — Spread on racks in a two-storey drying house over a slow holm-oak fire for roughly a fortnight, turned by hand, with the fire never allowed to flame.Why: Preservation and flavour together. This is the step that makes the product: guaiacol and syringol from the wood smoke enter the flesh and are what a reader means by smoked paprika.
3. Stone milling — Ground slowly on stone, traditionally in several passes, to avoid heating the powder.Why: Heat during milling degrades the carotenoids that supply the colour, so slow grinding protects the property the product is graded on.

Sold as dulce, agridulce and picante, which grade heat rather than smoke, and the La Vera designation certifies origin and process rather than a strength. Colour is measured in the trade by ASTA units as it is for all paprika.

The documented commercial risks for paprika generally apply — bulking with lower-grade material, and the colour adulteration recorded on the paprika profile — plus one specific to this product: unsmoked paprika treated with smoke flavouring and sold as smoked. The protected designation exists partly for that reason.

Grown as an annual field crop, harvested ripe in the autumn over several passes as fruit matures.

A humid autumn in the growing valley, which is precisely the condition that made smoke-drying necessary rather than optional. This is a case where a regional flavour exists because the weather ruled out the alternative.

Chillies reached Spain in the sixteenth century as part of the Columbian Exchange, and monasteries in Extremadura are traditionally credited with developing their cultivation. Smoke-drying arose from a practical constraint rather than a preference: the Vera valley’s autumn is too damp for the sun-drying used further south and east, so the crop was dried over oak fires and the region acquired a flavour the rest of Spain does not have.

A protected regional product with a substantial export trade, sold in distinctive tins that carry the designation. Spanish production overall is smaller than Hungarian, and the smoked share smaller again.