A Caper (Capparis spinosa L.) is a biennial spiny shrub that bears rounded, rather fleshy leaves and big pinkish-white flowers. Native to the Greek archipelagos, it grows wild on walls or in rocky coastal areas throughout the Mediterranean region. It is best known for its edible buds and fruit which are usually consumed pickled.

Culinary Uses

The pickled or salted caper bud (also called caper) is often used as a seasoning or garnish. Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine. The grown fruit of the caper shrub is also available, prepared similarly to the buds, as caper berries.

The berries, when ready to pick, are a dark olive green and about the size of a kernel of maize. They are picked and then pickled in a vinegar and salt solution.

Capers are often enjoyed in cold smoked salmon or cured salmon dishes, salad, pizza, pasta and sauces. Capers are also sometimes substituted for olives to garnish a martini.

Caper berries can be substituted with unripe nasturtium seeds, which have a very similar texture and flavour when pickled.

Capers are categorized and sold by their size, defined as follows: Non-pareil (0-7 mm), surfines (7-8 mm), capucines (8-9 mm), capotes (9-11 mm), fines (11-13 mm), and grusas (14+ mm).

Medicinal Uses

In Greek popular medicine a herbal tea made of caper root and young shoots is considered to be beneficial against rheumatism. Dioscoride (MM 2.204t) also provides instructions on the use of sprouts, roots, leaves and seeds in the treatment of strangury and inflammation.

History

The caper was used in ancient Greece as a carminative. It is represented in archaeological levels in the form of carbonised seeds and rarely as flowerbuds and fruits from archaic and classical contexts. Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae pays a lot of attention to the caper, as do Pliny (NH XIX, XLVIII.163) and Theophrastus.

The caper-berry is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes as "avionah" according to modern interpretation of the word.