◆ In House

Perlas Secas

Freeze-Dried Capers

€14.90

Salt-cured capers freeze-dried under vacuum, the water gone but the mustard-floral brine concentrated many times over into a crisp, shattering pearl.

Origin España

Producer Zales & Rego

Volume 100 g

Appearance

Pearl-grey-green crisp globes, irregular geometry, faintly lustrous

Aroma

Concentrated saline brine, intense floral-mustard, faint vinegar memory

Taste · Primary

Hyper-concentrated saline brine, floral-mustard isothiocyanate

Taste · Secondary

Faint vinegar, herbaceous green-bud, pine resin trace

Texture

Crisp pearl that shatters and melts in the mouth

Finish

Long, intensely saline-floral

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The caper, the unopened flower bud of Capparis spinosa, is one of the oldest preserved foods in the Mediterranean repertoire, and one of its most singular flavours: a mustard-floral aromatic released from the bud's glucocapparin, plus the salt-cure brine of long preservation. Dry Pearls takes salt-cured capers and freeze-dries them. Vacuum sublimation removes water without heat, preserving cellular structure while concentrating flavour many times over per gram.

The result is a pearl-grey-green crisp globe with the dimensions of the original bud, but with the brine, the floral-mustard, and the saline finish amplified to an intensity unattainable in the hydrated form.

The Producer

Zales & Rego - Alcorcón, Madrid

The line starts in a botica in Mondoñedo, Galicia, where remedies, conserves and spices once shared the same shelf. Alonzo Rego carried the trade to Cádiz in 1776, then across the Atlantic to Veracruz in 1795. In 1888, Don Ismael Rego y Salcedo gave the house its formal name. Seven generations later, Zales & Rego returns to the old world, composing and selecting from a workshop in Alcorcón, Madrid: compose, select, preserve the excellent.

Founded 1888

Generations Seven, documented in archive

Workshop Alcorcón, Madrid

Philosophy Compose. Select. Preserve the Excellent.

The Process

Water removed. Flavour stays.

Salt-cured capers go into a vacuum sublimation chamber, where the water leaves without ever passing through heat. The cellular structure holds its shape almost exactly, but everything that made the caper distinctive, the brine, the mustard-floral aromatic, concentrates many times over per gram. What comes out is the same bud, just louder.

Ingredient Salt-cured capers

Method Vacuum sublimation, no heat

Effect Flavour concentrated, structure preserved

Texture Crisp, shatters on the bite

“We didn't change the caper. We just turned the volume up.”

Zales & Rego · España