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What the heck are ... capers?
Ever
notice those pungent/salty/spicy little greenish-brown pea-sized beads
mixed into some of the sauces on meats and seafood at Tapino? Those little
nuggets are Capers, one of the classic Mediterranean flavors that include
olives, anchovies and artichokes. A few of them make a wonderful condiment.
A mouthful of them would be more than you could stand. Capers are the
unopened green flower buds of the “Capparis spinosa”, a wild
and/or cultivated bush grown mainly in Mediterranean countries, although
there is some limited domestic production in California. This shrubby
perennial plant grows about 3-5 feet high, with numerous branches. Flowers
are about 2 inches in diameter, white with violet stamens, and very beautiful,
if short lived. Capers are picked daily, since the youngest flower buds (about the size of large peppercorns) have the highest
quality. Capers are valued in proportion to the smallness of their size.
They are pickled in vinegar, or sometimes in salted vinegar. Both the
capers and the young fruits (caperberries) formed after the flower blooms
and is pollinated, are used in sauces and pickling. Capers have a sharp
piquant flavor and add pungency, a peculiar aroma and saltiness to foods
such as pasta sauces, pizza, fish, meats and salads. The flavor of caper
may be described as being similar to that of mustard and black pepper.
In fact, the caper’s strong flavor comes from mustard oil, methyl
isothiocyanate.
The caper bush is said to be native to the Mediterranean basin, but its
range stretches from the Atlantic coasts of the Canary Islands and Morocco
to the Black Sea and Crimea and Armenia, and eastward to the Caspian Sea
and into Iran. Capers probably originated from dry regions in west or
central Asia. Known and used for millennia, capers were mentioned by Dioscorides
(you remember him, don’t you?) as being a marketable product of
the ancient Greeks. Capers are also mentioned by the Roman scholar, Pliny
the Elder. (If my name was “Pliny”, I would change it!) Capers
are said to reduce flatulence and to be anti-rheumatic in effect. In ayurvedeic
medicine, capers are recorded as hepatic stimulants and protectors, improving
liver function. Capers have reported benefits for arteriosclerosis, as
diuretics, kidney disinfectants, and tonics. Infusions and poultices made
from caper root bark have been traditionally used for anemia, arthritis
and gout. Capers contain considerable amounts of the anti-oxidant flavinoid,
rutin.
Dry heat and intense sunlight make the preferred environment for caper
plants. They easily survive summertime temperatures higher than 110°
F. However, caper is a cold tender plant and has a temperature hardiness
range similar to the olive tree. Temperatures below 18°F will kill
it. Where native, caper plants grow spontaneously in cracks and crevices
of rocks and stone walls. Plants grow well in nutrient poor, well-drained
gravelly soils. It is said that caper bushes only grow well where Olives
grow well.
In its native areas, capers are usually collected from wild plants for
local use. Cultivated, commercial sources are in Spain (Almeria, Grenada
and Balearic Islands), France (Provence), and Italy (especially Sicily
and the Aeolian island of Salina and the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria).
Spain has over 6500 acres under cultivation and Italy, over 2500 acres.
Capers are also cultivated in Greece, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia,
Asia minor, Cyprus, the coastal areas of the Black Sea, and Iran.
In cultivated fields, plants are spaced 6 to 8 feet apart (depending on
the roughness of the topography; about 800 plants per acre). A full yield
is expected in 3 to 4 years. Plants are pruned back in winter to remove
dead wood and water-sprouts. Pruning is crucial to high production. Heavy
branch pruning is necessary, as flower buds arise only on one-year-old
branches. Three year old plants will yield 2.5 to 7 lbs. of caper flower
buds per plant. Caper plantings will last 20 to 30 years.
The unopened flower buds are harvested by hand on a dry days when there
is no dew or moisture on the plants. Harvesting is carried out regularly
throughout the growing season. In Southern Italy, caper flower buds are
collected by hand about every 8 to 12 days, resulting in 9 -12 harvest
times per season.
Capers are preserved either in vinegar or under layers of salt in a jar.
Raw capers are bland flavored and need to be cured to develop their piquant
flavor. In Italy, capers are graded on a scale from '7' to '16', which
indicates their size in millimeters. Mechanized screens are used to sort
the various sized capers after being hand-picked from the hillsides. Capers
can range in size from that of a tiny peppercorn (the petite variety from
southern France, considered the finest) to some as large as the tip of
your little finger from Italy.
In French speaking countries, capers are graded using the terms 'Nonpareilles'
(means “without equal” – sounds just like the French,
doesn’t it) and 'Surfines'. Capers under a centimeter diameter are
considered more valuable than the larger ‘Capucines’ (up to
one and a half centimeters in diameter). Capers in vinegar are traditionally
packaged in tall narrow glass bottles. Caper fruits, formed after the
flower bud has opened and been pollinated, (caper berry, capperone, or
taperone) are sometimes used in making caper flavored sauces, or sometimes
pickled for eating like small gherkins. Most “caper berry”
products are consumed locally, but a few are now being exported from Europe.
Occasionally, you might find them in gourmet specialty stores. At Tapino,
we incorporate tasty little caper berries in our Beef Carpaccio plate.
The magnificent caper flowers are as beautiful and short-lived as those
of the oriental poppy: The delicate, cream-white petals and vivid purple
stamina live for only a few hours. Moreover, the flowers are seldom seen
in caper gardens as the caper bud must be harvested before it opens. Nevertheless,
the flowers of wild caper bushes are a common sight in all countries surrounding
the Mediterranean sea.
Capers are essential for several Mediterranean cuisines and are mostly
associated with Italian foods. They are mostly applied to tomato or wine
sauces and pair well with poultry and fish. Furthermore, they are popular
with cold  meat
and frequently used for Italian pizza. Capers harmonize with most other
Mediterranean spices (basil, oregano and garlic) and are frequently combined
with pickled olives.
The cuisines of Central and Northern Europe, with their general preference
for lightly flavored foods, have come to use capers too; the main applications
are cold dishes (fish salads, minced meat and savory vegetable salads).
Many sauces owe their special character to the addition of a few chopped
capers; heating these sauces must, though, be minimized, because capers'
aroma gets quickly destroyed by higher temperature. It is best to add
capers as late as possible to the sauce, when it is luke-warm. Capers
probably have nothing to do with robbing banks, though.
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