Capers - spicy bud and crunchy berry
Here you will find capers and caperberries, from mild to spicy in taste, small, extra-fine and medium-sized, preserved in sea salt or wine vinegar, from Pantelleria or the island of Salina, solo or hidden in a wonderful tomato sugo, simply divine.
But what exactly are capers and caperberries and how do you use them in the kitchen?
One of the most popular seasonings in Mediterranean cuisine
When we were children, we always fished the small green, bitter-sour balls out of the white sauce of Königsberger Klopse and gave them to our father, who was delighted to have a few extra capers. Today, our daughter regularly puts capers on the edge of our plates and now we are happy. The reason why children often don't particularly like capers is that they taste the bitter substances more intensely than adults, because they still have many more taste buds on their tongue. So, if you didn't like capers as a child, it's worth getting to know them again as an adult. Perhaps chopped up small and hidden in beef tartare or a hearty meatball.
But what exactly are capers and caperberries?
Capers are the closed flower buds of the true caper bush, Capparis spinosa. The extremely undemanding caper plant is native to Southern Europe and the entire Mediterranean region. Already in ancient times, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs picked flower buds and used them as a spicy cooking ingredient. At that time, capers were also considered a remedy and an aphrodisiac.
There are different types of the thorny bush, some can grow up to 2 meters high, some only about half a meter, but can spread up to 4 meters wide. There are varieties that shed their leaves in autumn, but also evergreen variants. The bush of the Mediterranean flora likes to grow on old walls, in rock crevices and on stony soils with strong sunlight.
The harvest season for the small flower buds, which are only about the size of a pea, is from the end of May to the beginning of September. The caper harvest is a strenuous, laborious job that is done by hand. Since the buds of a plant do not all form at the same time, new flower heads are ready for picking approximately every 8 to 19 days, and the pickers regularly return to the caper bushes to collect the fine capers. The smaller and firmer they are, the more aromatic their taste.
How can you use capers in the kitchen?
The wonderfully flavorful capers are one of the most popular seasonings in Mediterranean cuisine, growing all around the Mediterranean Sea, whether on the islands of Southern Italy, such as Pantelleria or Salina, in Greece, the French Provence or in Morocco. Capers season the sauce in Vitello Tonnato, are the icing on the cake in Puttanesca Sugo, give Caponata Siciliana and a Bruschetta the right kick. We love the valuable caper buds in beef tartare, on carpaccio, with Königsberger Klopse, but also with a summery fruity orange salad with olives and pine nuts. With capers, the smaller the finer, the larger the stronger their aroma. For us, the smaller the capers, the less salt or vinegar they absorb and the purer their taste. By the way, we do not water capers preserved in salt, but remove the salt with a small brush, which can then be reused.
However, they are inedible raw; capers must first be worked, i.e., pressed, before being pickled in sea salt, brine, or vinegar, forming caprylic acid and mustard oil glycosides, which are responsible for the capers' very own spicy and tangy flavor. Caper production is a complex process. Capers or capperi in sea salt taste the most authentic and do not require preservatives. Before use, however, you should remove the salt thoroughly; some also advise rinsing, which I actually never do, but rather factor in the salt content of the capers directly, meaning I salt the other ingredients less or not at all. An opened jar can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time if you don't use capers in your dishes very often.
Capers in the kitchen are a truly aromatic delicacy and can do much more than just season the sauce of East Prussian Königsberger Klopse; they are indispensable in meatballs or meatloaf, they taste great in pesto, chopped up in salad dressing and in tartare sauce, they flavor soups and stews, and a tomato sugo alla puttanesca is unimaginable without capers.
However, you should not cook them with other ingredients, as caprylic acid and mustard oil are volatile and are lost with heat; instead, add them at the end of the cooking time.
In fact, quality is assessed by size, so there are the following categories:
- Nonpareilles (extra quality, 4–7 mm, unsurpassed in taste)
- Surfines (1st quality, 7–8 mm)
- Capucines (2nd quality, 8–9 mm)
- Caponates fines (3rd quality, 9–10 mm)
- Fines (12–13 mm)
- Hors calibres (4th quality, 13–15 mm)
If the caper flower buds are allowed to grow at the end of summer, a delicate flower similar to a passion fruit flower first appears, followed by the development of the caper fruits or caperberries. The caperberry is a small, crunchy berry containing many black seeds and is significantly milder in aroma than the small capers. This makes them wonderful as antipasti, often enjoyed in combination with olives.
