Salt-packed capers

Câpres au sel

What it is

The caper's bite is not the salt: the unopened bud holds glucocapparin, which the plant's own enzyme turns into a mustard oil the instant the bud is bruised. Dry salt cures the buds over about twenty days by lactic fermentation, the sauerkraut reaction, where a vinegar brine simply halts that chemistry and substitutes its own flavour.

In the kitchen

Rinse, then soak fifteen minutes in cold water and taste one; large calibres may want an hour with a change of water. Squeeze them dry before they meet hot oil, or the residual water spits and thins the sauce.

Goes with

Anchovy Lemon Olive oil Parsley Butter Tomato Tuna Skate wing

Same species

Caper berries Caper leaves Capers

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