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Caper Sauce, for Fish

A buttery sauce with capers, caper liquor, anchovy essence, salt, and pepper for fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Caper Sauce, for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the capers across once or twice, but do not chop them finely.

  2. Put the capers in a saucepan with ½ pint of melted butter. Add the caper liquor, salt, pepper, and anchovy essence.

  3. Keep stirring until the mixture just simmers.

  4. Serve immediately.

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.

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.

  1. Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the rich, smooth base that carries the sauce's flavour and body.
Capers
Provide the sharp, briny acidity that defines the sauce.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savoury depth that rounds out the salty and sour notes.

The step that matters

Keep stirring until the mixture just simmers. Butter-based sauces can separate or scorch if they overheat. Stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the emulsion smooth, so stop as soon as it simmers.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Capersthe original
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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