Where to Find Capers in a Grocery Store? - Fast Food Justice (2023)

WHERE TO FIND CAPERS IN A GROCERY STORE?

If you are interested in Mediterranean food, you will get used to a vegetarian ingredient named capers. This flower bud has been used in many European local restaurants to create dressing coats or condiments of many dishes. For those who are vegetarians, there is a limit of food source choice for making meals.

Therefore, this article is here to give you a brief introduction to capers and we hope that you can make use of it in your dish. Capers are quite new to a lot of people. Therefore, finding them in large areas like supermarkets or grocery stores is a challenge for consumers. Read this article, and you can know where to find capers in a grocery store in an easy way.

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What is caper?

Capers are the flower buds of caper bush that have not been ripped. Caper bush is planted in Italy, Morocco and some Asian countries. People often dry capers under the sun as dried capers will make the flavor of the dishes stronger . Some of the dishes to make use of capers are fish, pasta, and stews.

Many people think that caper and caperberry are the same. Caperberry is the caper but not yet being picked. In brief, caperberry is the ripened caper that has not yet been cultivated and developed into fruits. Caperberry has the same size as an olive, and much larger than caper with small seeds.

Types of capers: capers are classified by sizes. The smallest caper is about 7 mm in diameter, called nonpareils. It has the size of a green pea, and is the most expensive. A common type of capers you can see in the market is surfine capers, whose size is about 7mm to 8 mm. We also have other bigger size capers like capucines (8 mm to 9mm), capotes (9 mm to 11 mm), fines (11 mm to 13 mm). The largest one is called grusas (over 14 mm). This type of caper is quite hard to find in grocery stores.

What is caper used for?

Capers can have various uses like dressing coats, sauces or condiments. Small capers will have a sour and salty taste, so chefs often put these in Italian foods like pasta chicken piccata (chicken breast cooked with lemon and caper dressing).

In India, people make pickled capers to create an acid taste. Then, they will store the pickle in the fridge, and use it as a side dish. Capers can be used as a condiment to bring more flavor in the salmon and lamb dishes. People often use a combination of caper and lemon to make sauces for the dishes.

The Nutrition of Capers?

Caper is a healthy food to eat raw or cook with other ingredients as it contains no carbs, proteins or fat. So, if you eat capers a lot, you will not have to worry about cholesterol that your body consumes.

A lot of minerals like sodium, copper are also found in capers. It will help to provide energy for your body to function properly and deal with fluid problems, or high blood pressure. Vitamin K is also contained in capers, to help enhance the strength ò bones.

For 9 grams of caper (approximately 1 tablespoon of capers stored in can), sodium accounted for 9% of the daily value (DV). Next, copper accounted for 4% of the DV. Finally, Vitamin K accounted for 2% of the DV. Other substances like fat, protein do not contain much, only 0.2 to 0.4 grams.

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Where to find capers in grocery stores?

Joe’s and Target are the stores that sell quite a lot of capers, so you should go there first.

A tip for you to find capers in a grocery store is you should negotiate the aisles in a grocery store before buying. There are two aisles that you can need to find the location first is the condiment and International section. In the condiment aisle, you can find pickles and olives first as capers and these foods are often on the same shelf.

If you cannot find it there, then you can go to the Italian food aisle. Grocery stores often store capers in bottles or cans, so you cannot buy samples like other ingredients.

What Grocery Store Sells Capers?

This is the main part of this article, and you should read it carefully to locate the nearest place to buy because capers are not a common ingredient.

Amazon: You can experience online shopping using the keyword “caper”. Amazon will list all of the brands, prices to help you find it with an affordable price. Moreover, Amazon also offers delivery to your home.

Walmart: it is a retail store, so you will find lots of ingredients to cook meals. You can use their websites to look for stores that have capers in stock. You can find brands like Reese or Goya.

Safeway: if you live in Idaho, you can go to Safeway. It is a chain of supermarkets providing organic capers. You can find them in the condiment aisle, olives and pickle sections.

King Soopers: King Soopers are brands of Kroger, and have a headquarter in Colorado, in Rocky Mountain. You can buy capers from olives and pickle sections or in the condiment aisle.

Italian markets: capers is often used as a dressing to Italian food like pasta or toppings in pizza. Moreover, caper bushes are cultivated a lot in Italy. Therefore, if you are looking for an Italian ingredient like caper, you will find it easier here.

Trader Joe’s: this supermarket gives you the non pareil capers with no preservatives. So, if you are on a diet, you can go here to shop.

Whole Foods Market: its specialty is the handmade capers. If not, you can buy organic capers or Non Pareil capers. One disadvantage is that you need to go there physically because this place is not supported for online shopping.

H.E.B: it is a chain of supermarkets in Texas and sells lots of raw and organic capers. You can look at the shelf placing olives to find capers. You can look for its homemade non pareil caper.

Exciting Ways Of Using Capers

The supermarket sells capers in jars. They often mix the capers with vinegar and salt to create a salty and savory flavor. The common way to use caper is combining with lemon to make sauces or directly add to strengthen the flavor. Besides, you can also try new ways to cook capers. Here are some of the Italian recipes you can try to make at home.

-Caponata: it is an Italian pasta cooked with eggplant. Capers are used as a condiment and toppings. You can use this recipe to make dinner with family and friends.

-A tapenade: it is an Italian appetiser. You can use this dish to make an appearance for parties, board games . The ingredients to prepare are chopped capers, olives and anchovies. Then, you blend these ingredients to create a paste. You can also add herbs or lemon to make sauces. Then, you can enjoy this dish with a loaf of bread.

What can I use as a substitute for capers?

There is not much choice to replace capers. The easiest way is using olive, as their flavors are quite similar. Another one is nasturtium capers, which are the buds in Nasturtium flowers.

• Green olive: people normally do not use raw olive in food. They will make pickles by adding vinegar or salt to the olives. It will help to bring the acidic flavor. You can use one green olive as a replacement for two capers.
• Nasturtium seeds: nasturtium is a flower from nasturtium seeds. You can eat every part of this plant. The flower can be added as a topping to a salad or soup. You can make a pickle by blending nasturtium seeds with vinegar and garlic to create a mixture.

How to store capers?

Capers are often stored in jars in the grocery store, so you should be careful when holding it. If your capers are still new and not yet opened, you can store them in your pantry or kitchen at room temperature. It will last for years. However, when you have already opened the capers jars, you should put them in a refrigerator for higher storage expiration.

Conclusion

Caper is a strange ingredient, as it is a flower of caper bush that can be eaten. The common way to use capers is in Italian dishes and pickles. Its strong acid and salty flavor will help you to create a deep flavor. You can now find non pareil capers in the International or the condiment aisle of a lot of supermarkets like Walmart, Whole Foods.

If you forget where to find capers in a grocery store, you can look for it again in part 4 and 5 or this article. If you find this article useful, then you can share it to your friends and family so more people will know about it.