Caper berries

Câprons (câpres à queue)

What it is

The caper bush flowers for a single day — open at dawn, spent by dusk — and the berry is what follows if the bud was left on the plant. A grower has to choose: pick the buds for capers, or let them go and take the fruit, since one bush will not give a full crop of both.

In the kitchen

Serve them whole with the stalk on, at room temperature, and do not chop them: the seeds are the texture you are buying. Rinse briefly only — a long soak leaves them limp and hollow-tasting.

Goes with

Anchovy Olive oil Manzanilla Serrano ham Tomato Sea bass

Same species

Caper leaves Capers Salt-packed capers

In season alongside

Salt marsh lamb Japanese abalone Chabichou du Poitou Matjes herring Irish moss Warty venus clam

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