Paprika is a cooking staple in most homes, as it gives a sweet and smoky kick to any dish you're preparing.
But if you don't know what it's actually made of, you're not the only one - as one person has recently shared the fact on social media, much to the surprise of others.
It turns out that the jars of paprika you probably have in your cupboards are not in fact made up of ground-up trees or plants, like most people seem to believe. Instead, the spicy substance is made of a crushed vegetable that's very popular in a lot of different cuisines.
The Mirror reports that Twitter user @simsimmaaz recently discovered that the spice was made up of red bell peppers.
Sharing her revelation, she tweeted: "Learning that paprika is just dried and crushed red bell peppers was really shocking. Like I dunno why I thought there was a Paprika tree somewhere."
Other people seemed to be equally as shocked, with one person replying: "I didn't think there was a paprika tree, but I for sure thought it was some kind of spice blend or like its own thing that they just powdered."
Another confessed: "I also thought there was a curry tree and that allspice was a combination of spices."
And another person penned: "I’ve been cooking for decades and just realized this same truth in the last month. Mind blown."
Paprika can be made with many different types of peppers, including cayenne or Aleppo. They're dried out first, then crushed using a grinder or mortar and pestle.
Smoked paprika, another popular variation for cooking, is created by first smoking the peppers over an oak fire before the drying-out process.
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