Pickled capers

The fruits of a plant like caper have long been an important part of the modern culinary tradition. Pickled capers are included in a fairly large number of dishes. The original taste of pickled capers gives the taste and aroma of the finished culinary product interesting savoury notes. Capers or Capparis is a genus of plant that are assigned to the Caper family.

In its biological structure, capers are a shrub that creeps along the surface of the earth. Currently, researchers know about three hundred different species of capers that form the family of the same name. Capers choose territories located in the tropical as well as subtropical climates of the planet for growth.

The African continent is considered the birthplace of capers, as well as southern Europe, where the fruits of the plant became an integral part of the culinary tradition back in the era of Antiquity. The ancient Greeks traded capers and thus spread capers to the territories of all states of that time. Greek capers were considered an exquisite ingredient used to make soups as well as salads.

Not many people know that pickled capers are made from buds of undiscovered inflorescences of the plant. It is worth noting that, as a rule, canned vinegar and salt or pickled capers are used in cooking. It is worth noting that the composition of pickled capers contains a fairly large amount of salt.

For this reason, pickled capers are soaked in water for some time before use to remove excess salt from the product composition. It is simply impossible to describe in a few words the taste of pickled capers. However, if we talk about the taste range, then such epithets as mustard, sharp, sour-tart or savory can be applied to pickled capers.

Thanks to the unique chemical composition, which went to pickled capers from nature, the product is able to usefully change the taste of the finished culinary product. The chemical composition of pickled capers contains a fairly large amount of mustard oil, which determines the taste as well as the aroma of the product. It is noteworthy that pickled capers are often replaced by similar-tasting fruits of a plant such as nasturtium.

It is worth noting that not only canned or pickled capers are used in cooking. Fresh capers are also eaten, which are enriched with protein of plant origin. Fresh, as well as pickled capers, are considered a characteristic feature of the Mediterranean culinary tradition. Along with olive oil and seafood, pickled capers are part of the vast majority of the Mediterranean's gastronomic delights.

Mediterranean food experts include capers in the region's so-called pantheon of classical fragrances and its culinary tradition. The interesting thing is that capers are used not only as a food, but also a drug that helps in the fight against rheumatism, and also helps to reduce the manifestations of flatulence.