Cutting a caper - #113

Caper \Ca"per\, n.
A frolicsome leap or spring; a skip; a jump, as in mirth or
dancing; a prank.

To cut a caper, to frolic; to make a sportive spring; to
play a prank. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

William to the rescue again. (Were you aware that he
increased the vocabulary of the English language by 50%?)

I'm not sure if the flower of the Capparis spinosa L. is an endangered species, but
the bud tends to get whipped off fairly quickly to be pickled as a caper.

And - if the blossom survives and fruits - it's also whipped off and pickled
as a caper berry.
Which is bigger and softer.

Here's a recipe for a crash-hot accompaniment to a nice white fish filet:

Heat a couple of tablespoons of butter until it's foaming, add some lemon zest,
juice of half a lemon and a teaspoon or so of caper berries.
Pour it over your fish.
Perfect.

The ancient Greeks used the caper as a carminativum for its antispasmodic
activity  against cramps of the digestive system
in combination with flatulence.

TMI.

I don't think I really wanted to know that.