Where does the apparent hyper-importance of paprika (the spice powder as well as the bell pepper by the same name) in Hungarian cuisine come from?
I live in Germany and am interested in Hungarian cuisine. Unfortunately, i‘ve never been to Hungary.
But everytime i google, or read through a cookbook, at least 90%, or closer to 95% of all recipes credibly labelled as some Hungarian classic approach contain one if not both paprika ingredients.
I am not aware of any other regional cuisine that where an ingredient has so much importance. Closest i can think of are creole cuisine which seems to be very specific about a certain combination of vegetables, or possibly japanese cuisine if you count shoyu, mirin, rice vinegar and miso as some sort of adaptable master template but that still misses the point.
How did paprika become so important either in hungarian cuisine or at least outward representation of hungarian cuisine?
