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Sauce

Caper Sauce, for Fish

A sauce made with melted butter, capers, caper liquor, anchovy essence, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Caper Sauce, for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the capers across once or twice, but do not chop them finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the capers with the melted butter and all other ingredients.

  3. Keep stirring until the mixture just simmers, then it is ready to serve.

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.

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. Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Melted butter
Forms the rich base of the sauce and carries its flavour and smooth texture.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savoury, salty depth that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring until it just simmers. Butter-based sauces can separate or scorch if overheated. Heating gently only until the mixture just simmers keeps the butter emulsified and the flavours fresh.

Swap the capers

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Capersthe original
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, anchovy. 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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