Name: Caper Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint drawn butter; ½ cup water; 2 tablespoons capers; 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice

Why it works: Butter and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Caper Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint drawn butter
½ cup water
2 tablespoons capers
1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice

Directions

Mix the drawn butter with water.
Stir in the capers and vinegar or lemon juice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,637 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,453 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Drawn butter: Provides the rich fat base that carries the sauce's flavour and gives it a smooth body.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the fat.