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
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the finely chopped capers.
Let it boil for 1 minute to soften the capers.
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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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
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth, silky body.
- Capers
- Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
The step that matters
Boiling the capers for 1 minute. Capers are firm and sharp when raw. A brief boil softens them and mellows their acidity, so they blend into the sauce rather than tasting harsh. Boiling much longer can cause the butter to separate and darken.
“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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