Are the capers still good

food-safety

I have a bottle of green capers in brine in the fridge, opened. About half of the capers are sitting on the bottom of the jar, and another half are floating.

Have the floating ones turned bad? Or is this just a quirk of capers? I haven't really noticed this before with previous bottles.

The bottle is just from the supermarket.

Best Answer

I dug around a bit, and most people seem to agree that this is normal caper behaviour, though no one has made any real assertion as to why, other than that capers have varying density, and the brine does not.

The usual tests for freshness (do they look/smell/taste okay?) are recommended. Brined capers should last ~9 months from the time the jar is opened, or 3 years in a dark pantry unopened.