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Sauce

Caper Sauce

A savory sauce made with flour, butter, milk, capers, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Caper Sauce

Why it works: Flour and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,024 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Caper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour smoothly.

  3. Add the pepper, salt, and milk gradually, stirring continuously.

  4. Bring to a boil and cook for three minutes.

  5. Add the capers and vinegar, mixing well.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled mutton if desired, using the meat's cooking liquid instead of milk.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, body-rich sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Provides fat for the base and carries flour, adding richness to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy, smooth texture.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its creamy base.

The step that matters

Adding the milk gradually while stirring continuously. Pouring in liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour and butter blended, which prevents lumps from forming in the sauce.

Swap the capers

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, pepper, vinegar. 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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