Why it works: Capers and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,222 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Caper Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Beat the flour and butter together until creamy.
Add the boiling water and stir on the stove until it reaches a boil.
Stir in the capers, lemon juice, and salt.
Serve
Keep warm but not hot until ready to serve with meat.
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.
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Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,222 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Capers + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,024 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Capers + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce when heated.
- Butter
- Fat that enriches the flavor and gives the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.
- Capers
- Brined buds that add a sharp, salty, briny aroma and bite.
- Lemon juice
- Acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the butter.
The step that matters
Bringing the flour-butter mixture to a boil while stirring. Flour starch only thickens fully when the liquid reaches a boil. Stirring keeps the flour dispersed so the sauce stays smooth rather than lumpy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (capers, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Lemonthe original
- Limefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against capers, flour, butter. 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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