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
Prepare
Mince one tablespoon of capers.
Cut another tablespoon of capers into halves.
Mix the minced and halved capers with one tablespoon of vinegar.
Make the sauce
Stir the mixture into ½ cup of melted butter over low heat until hot.
Optionally, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice for extra flavor.
Pour the sauce into a serving dish.
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 + 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).
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Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,453 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,334 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Capers
- Provide the sharp, briny flavor that cuts through the richness of the butter.
- Butter
- Forms the rich, smooth base of the sauce and carries the caper flavor.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the butter.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture into the melted butter over low heat until hot. Butter can separate or scorch if it gets too hot, which makes the sauce greasy or grainy. Gentle heat lets the butter emulsify smoothly with the vinegar-caper mixture and keeps the flavor fresh.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (capers, vinegar, butter):
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits about as well
- Cherryfits about as well
- Plumfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against capers, vinegar, 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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