Why it works: Parsley and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Caper Sauce II
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan and heat it very hot without boiling.
Add the chopped capers, parsley, salt, and pepper.
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.
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Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,550 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,088 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Provides richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce as it carries the other flavours.
- Capers
- Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
The step that matters
Heating the butter without boiling. Butter is mostly fat with water and milk solids. If it boils hard, the water evaporates and the milk solids can scorch, giving a dark, bitter taste. Heating it very hot but below a boil keeps the butter clean and smooth.
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, pepper):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper. 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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