Ingredient

Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts are miniature cabbages, and the reason a generation grew up hating them is almost entirely a cooking problem. Boiled for twenty minutes they release sulphur compounds, go grey and turn to mush. Roasted for twenty minutes they caramelise, crisp and go sweet. Same vegetable, opposite outcome.

The sulphur, and why time matters more than heat

Sprouts contain glucosinolates. When the cells are damaged — by cutting, by chewing, by cooking — an enzyme converts them into a range of sulphur compounds, some of which are pungent and some of which smell frankly bad. Those compounds accumulate steadily the longer the vegetable is cooked.

This is why the length of cooking matters more than the intensity. A sprout roasted hard for twenty minutes and a sprout boiled gently for twenty minutes have both been cooked for twenty minutes, but the roasted one has had its surface dried and browned while the boiled one has sat in water leaching sulphur compounds into a liquid you then pour off, taking the flavour with it.

Two other things push the same way. Overcooking degrades chlorophyll, so long-boiled sprouts go from bright green to olive-grey. And the texture collapses — the pectin holding the cell walls together breaks down, and a sprout with no structure is unpleasant however it tastes.

The methods that work

• Roasted, halved, cut side down. Halve them, toss in oil and salt, spread cut side down on a hot tray, and roast until the flat faces are deeply browned and the outer leaves are crisp. The single best thing to do with a sprout, and it converts sceptics.
• Fried in a pan, shredded. Slice them thinly, fry hard in butter or bacon fat, finish with lemon. Fast, and the increased surface area means more browning.
• Raw, shredded, in a salad. Very finely sliced with lemon, oil, parmesan and hazelnuts. Sprouts are excellent raw and hardly anybody tries it.
• Blanched briefly then finished in fat. Two or three minutes in salted boiling water, drained and dried, then into a hot pan with butter and bacon.
• Halved and charred on a griddle or in a wok, with chilli, garlic and fish sauce or soy.
• Not boiled until soft. There is no version of this that is good.

What goes with them

Sprouts want fat, salt, sweetness or acid, and preferably several at once.

• Bacon, pancetta, chorizo — salt and fat together, and the classic pairing for a reason.
• Chestnuts — sweetness and a soft, starchy contrast.
• Hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts — toasted, for crunch and richness.
• Lemon or vinegar — acid cuts the sulphur note directly and lifts the whole dish. Balsamic on roasted sprouts is a cliché because it works.
• Parmesan or a hard salty cheese, grated over while hot.
• Chilli and garlic, especially with the Asian treatments.
• Maple, honey or brown butter — sweetness against bitterness.

Buying and preparing

Look for tight, firm, heavy sprouts with no yellowing on the outer leaves. Loose, puffy sprouts are old and will be strong-tasting. Smaller sprouts are generally sweeter and more tender than large ones. Sprouts still on the stalk keep considerably better and are worth buying if you see them.

Trim only the very base of the stem and pull off any damaged outer leaves. Cutting a deep cross in the base is traditional and is now generally regarded as pointless — it was meant to help the middle cook at the same rate as the outside, and halving the sprout does that far better.

Sprouts sweeten after frost, like kale, which is why they are a winter vegetable and why the ones sold in September rarely taste as good.

They keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge, and the smell of a bag left too long is the same sulphur chemistry announcing itself.

Common questions