Paprika
Ground dried red pepper, from sweet and mild to hot, the red of Hungarian goulash.
Also: piros paprika, Hungarian pepper, edesnemes, ground sweet pepper
Paprika is the powder of dried ripe peppers, Capsicum annuum, bred to be mild or hot. Hungary made it a national spice, with grades from delicate, noble sweet, to hot, and cooks there fry it briefly in fat to release colour and flavour, away from high heat that would make it bitter. Spanish paprika, pimentón, is smoked. Paprika is also valued as a natural colourant, measured by ASTA colour value, and it tints sausages, cheeses and snacks. Its vitamin C content was famously studied by the Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi, who won a Nobel Prize in 1937.