Posted on 12/01/2021 12:03:53 PM PST by mylife
Capers are salty little flavor bombs that, when they find your fork, create a perfectly balanced bite that pops like fireworks. They’re also the sort of food that we tend not to ask questions about, until one day, apropos of nothing, we suddenly realize we have no idea what capers are. Are they fruits? Vegetables? Something else entirely? It’s the sort of question that causes a person to bolt out of bed in the middle of the night, grab their phone, Google “what are capers,” and find themselves here. So let’s answer this pressing question so you can get back to bed.
What are capers? Capers are tiny flower buds that grow on the spiny, sprawling capparis spinosa bush, aka the caper bush. It grows in places where most plants can’t: cliffs, rocky hillsides, sandy or gravelly soils, etc. These bushes can be found along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from the Middle East to the Himalayas, across the Pacific Islands, and in the outback of Northern Australia. If growing conditions are harsh, caper bushes find a way.
A brief history of capers Historically, wherever soil is inhospitable to crops, people have needed to figure out how to make edible whatever grows in the area.
From there, capers got famous. They make an appearance in The Epic of Gilgamesh, written on clay tablets in Sumer around 2700 BC. They can be also found in the De materia medica, which confirmed capers were prized in Ancient Greece as both food and medicine, and in Apicius, an ancient Latin “cookbook” compiled in the first century AD.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetakeout.com ...
penelopesire makes the best tater salad evah!!
I make a vinaigrette using EVO, balsamic, capers, black pepper, a small amount of garlic powder and smoked salt. It’s really good!
Bkmk caper
I thought I was the only one who put capers on my bagels with lox and cream cheese. Glad to know I’m not alone!
A buttery, lemon, wine, and cream sauce made with capers is delicious! Goes great over saffron chicken or schnitzel.
I give you, rhubarb. QED
I love it! had Rhubarb pie this Thanksgiving!!
garlic powder and smoked salt? why not use real garlic? why smoke the salt?
saffron is a whole nother “thread”
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Send me back to Crete and I will gorge myself on olives capers, and seafood. Lousy Fauci funded Chinese bastards and their bioweapon.
LOVE capers! But the fried ones look a little bit like the left-over shell from a cicada ... not seeing a flower there
I guess you have to make and taste them to understand the hype.
You’re going to get clobbered, you klepto!
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