Ingredients

• Cayenne pepper

  Cayenne pepper is a thin, hot, red chili pepper, and, more familiarly, the fiery red powder ground from it that lives in almost every spice rack.

• Chili powder

  Chili powder, in American cooking, is not pure ground chile but a seasoning BLEND: ground mild chili peppers (ancho and others) mixed with cumin, garlic powder, oregano and often paprika, salt and onion powder.

• Chipotle

  A chipotle is a jalapeño that has been ripened to red and then smoke-dried, and the smoking transforms it utterly, giving a deep, smoky, sweet-earthy flavor with a moderate heat quite unlike the fresh green chile.

• Chorizo

  Chorizo is the great pork sausage of the Spanish-speaking world, and its defining flavor is smoked paprika, pimentón, which gives Spanish chorizo its deep brick-red color, smoky aroma and either sweet (dulce) or hot (picante) character.

• Dry rub

  A dry rub is a dry spice blend (ground spices, dried herbs, salt, and usually a little sugar), rubbed onto the surface of meat, poultry, or fish before cooking to season it and build a flavorful crust.

• Hot paprika

  Hot paprika is paprika with real chili warmth: ground dried red Capsicum annuum peppers that keep their capsaicin, so the powder carries a genuine spicy heat on top of paprika's warm, sweet, fruity red-pepper flavor and glowing color.

• Hungarian paprika

  Hungarian paprika is the paprika of Hungary, where ground red pepper is the national spice and is grown, dried and graded with unusual care, above all in the regions of Szeged and Kalocsa.

• Liquid smoke

  Liquid smoke is a seasoning made by capturing real wood smoke and condensing it into water, a genuine smoke flavoring, not an artificial chemical.

• Paprika

  Paprika is a ground red spice made from dried, ripe chili peppers of the species Capsicum annuum (the same species as the bell pepper and cayenne pepper), milled to a fine, brick-red to scarlet powder.

• Pimentón de la Vera

  Pimentón de la Vera is the famous Spanish smoked paprika from the La Vera valley in Extremadura, western Spain, made from red chili peppers slowly dried over smoldering oak before grinding, a method that gives it a deep, distinctive woodsmoke flavor.

• Smoked paprika

  Smoked paprika is paprika made from red chili peppers that are dried over smoldering oak before being ground, so the powder carries a deep, smoky, almost bacony flavor on top of paprika's warm, sweet red-pepper taste.

• Sweet paprika

  Sweet paprika is the mild, everyday paprika: ground dried red Capsicum annuum peppers with little or no heat, prized for their warm, sweet, fruity flavor and glowing red color rather than for spice. 'Sweet' here means not hot, not sugary: it is made from low-capsaicin peppers, so you can add it generously without setting a dish alight.