Capers

Capers are the pickled flower-buds of the caper-bush (Capparis spinosa). They have an agreeable pungency of taste, with a slight bitterness, and have long been in very general use as a condiment and ingredient of sauces, along with boiled mutton, &c. They are of a grayish-green colour, to improve which, however, copper is sometimes used; this, however, as in the case of other pickles (see ADULTERATION), renders them poisonous.—The caper-bush is a native of the Mediterranean countries, and is cultivated in some parts of the south of France and in Italy, but most of all in Sicily. It succeeds in the open air even at Paris, but in Britain requires the aid of artificial heat. It is a trailing, rambling shrub, loving dry places, and often growing on rocks or walls. It begins to flower early in summer, and continues flowering till winter. The buds are gathered every morning, and are immediately put into vinegar and salt: at the end of the season they are sorted according to their size and colour (the greenest and least expanded being the best). The fruit is also pickled in the south of Italy, and in other countries both the buds and fruits of different species are used in the same way. Various substitutes for capers are sometimes used, as the flower-buds and unripe fruits of the Indian Cress (Tropæolum majus), those of the Bean Caper (Zygophyllum Fabago), and it is said even the buds of the Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris).—The Cape Tree (Capparis Jamaicensis), which grows throughout the West Indies, in South America, and in Florida, is a small tree with a very hard wood.