Surprise! That taste is capers

Green Scene

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When I was younger, I was only familiar with the pumpkin pie spices — cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and the like. However, as time went on, I began to mix in many different circles and, one day, I found myself at a barbecue where the gracious hostess was knowledgeable about the food scene.  

The selection of meats and salads were both generous and beautifully presented. I filled my plate and joined friends at a table prepared to have an enjoyable meal. I took small bites from the various unfamiliar dishes to see what they tasted like. Imagine my surprise when I took a bite of clearly recognizable potato salad with a completely unrecognizable taste.

I took another small bite and realized that the small, round green somethings were the source of my surprise. That was my introduction to the caper. 

Jackie Mason, the comedian, has a funny monologue about “acquired tastes among the avant guard set. In it, he points out that no one seems to need to acquire a taste for chocolate. 

While I will admit that over time I have, indeed, acquired a taste for formerly unpalatable foods, capers never made it onto my list of enjoyable foods. Apparently, there are two caper spice possibilities — one is the flower bud and the other is the berry, both of which are generally pickled for use. The one I, so unhappily encountered, was a bud. 

Growing wild

The caper, a Mediterranean plant, can be found growing wild all over Israel and does have a most beautiful flower. 

Recently, I found a small one growing from between the stones of a wall where we are staying in Jerusalem where it for months. It is a highly tenacious plant, which can survive both arid conditions and rough handling. Even cutting it back to the roots will not kill it and has become a metaphor for endurance.

The botanical name for the caper is Capparis spinosa. Its place of origin is not clear but Capparis may refer to the island of Cyprus — Kypros in Greek  -where they grow abundantly, although there are many other hypotheses. Spinosa — thorny — derives from a pair of hooked spines at the base of each leaf stalk.

The caper has been known since ancient times and was used then as a carminative. Apparently, that means that it was used as a digestive aid for the elimination of flatulence and, in fact, has nothing to do with the word carmine, which is a vivid shade of red. The Latin root is “carminate”— healing by using a charm — which moved into English to mean a charm. 

Because of the caper’s importance in various Mediterranean cuisines, it is now being cultivated as well as wild-collected. But the plants, should you be able to buy them in New York somewhere, are root hardy only to about 18 degrees. 

That means that there is a strong likelihood given some of our extreme winter weather conditions that they will not be perennials in our area.

Unopened buds are harvested only on dry days. The buds are then wilted and packed in white vinegar. Alternately, they can be layered with fine sea salt over the course of a week and will keep for a year. 

Botanically capers belong to the botanical group called  Rosids — which, not surprisingly, includes roses — although there is only a distant relationship. 

Rosids are located in the Order Brassicales, which includes the pungent mustard and cabbage families. The outstanding characteristic of this group is the production of mustard oil compounds. It is these compounds that are released from the caper bud and berry during processing and are responsible for the caper’s unique and strong flavor.

Every time we are in Israel, we make a trip to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which is the only remnant of the Temple. This wall is made up of are 45courses of huge limestone blocks. Growing out from many of the wall’s blocks are these small scrubby plants that I could not identify in the past. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they are, in fact, caper bushes. 

green scene, Sura Jeselsohn

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