Why Brussels sprouts are good again
November 25, 2022 11:31 AM   Subscribe

 
i am able to taste propylthiouracil, i find the test strips disgusting, like if you licked a car tire and as a kid found all brassicas to be unbearably bitter, could only eat broccoli covered with cheese, but now despite finding them bitter absolutely love them, especially brussel sprouts.
posted by dis_integration at 11:38 AM on November 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


It would be hard for them not to, IMO.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:50 AM on November 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


I even liked them as a kid, when they were still “horribly bitter” AND my mom usually overcooked them…but nowadays we oven roast them or sauté them with bacon, and they are the most popular veggie in our house (broccoli is a close second, ha).
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:01 PM on November 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


Honestly, the only way I was ever served Brussels sprouts was boiled, and plain beyond that. No wonder we hated them! See also: my mom's habit of serving cauliflower in raw florets with no seasoning.

As an adult, discovering olive oil, roasting, and salt was a total mind-blower for me.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:01 PM on November 25, 2022 [13 favorites]


I was one of those oddball kids who loved, loved, loved brussels sprouts. And that was back when no one knew how to cook them, so you usually got them either boiled to death or, if you were very lucky, steamed to death.

Still love ‘em. Roasted ftw!
posted by Thorzdad at 12:02 PM on November 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


I remember eating them occasionally as a kid and didn't mind them but didn't seek them out either. A couple of years ago I was in a grocery store and saw some and thought I'd buy some so that the kids could try something new. Everyone really liked them so now it's a fairly regular thing I make, although they seem to be much smaller this year.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:02 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


This writeup is the first time I've read that brussels sprouts were originally milder, then were replaced with a bitter variety that was easier to farm.

There's a trend in development of agricultural products to dumb down their flavors. Thinking particularly of jalapeños and the particularly awful "tamed jalapeño" variety. Jalapeños are a chile pepper, they should have heat. But between bad farming (overwatering) and bizarre genetic manipulation most jalapeños in the US now taste more like bell peppers than anything else.

I don't need my brussels sprouts to be bitter though, and the ones we get still have plenty of flavor and good texture. So this change I approve.
posted by Nelson at 12:11 PM on November 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


Never liked sprouts as a kid: Always had them boiled or steamed, which made them taste like mini-cabbages. As an adult, oven- or pan-roasting really makes them sweet and balances the bitterness, finally making them enjoyable.

Cooked sprouts with pancetta, yesterday. It was quite good, though I should have made the pork crispier for a bit more texture.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:29 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I have never not loved Brussels sprouts. I do have a bit of a block about the prep-work involved. Maybe I should make some this coming week, to see if I notice any difference between contemporary sprouts and those of my childhood. My kids love them, and broccoli and spinach and liver and strong cheeses and fish.
I am a picky eater, but I am also a bit suspicious about picky eating: I feel it is more something learnt rather than something given. And obviously also something about bad cooking.
posted by mumimor at 12:33 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I also was one of those weird kids who liked brussel sprouts - as well as broccoli and cauliflower.

But as an adult I have realized that they don't like me. Those vegetables, along with green cabbage, rutabaga and turnip, give me horrible indigestion and....er, other gastric issues. (Lemme put it this way - a year ago, my sister in law served roasted brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving, and they smelled so good I decided to risk it and I ate one single sprout, which was only the size of a small marble. And even that was enough to affect me to the point that my father had to roll down the window during our ride home.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:33 PM on November 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


I'm skeptical. There is something in brussels sprouts that other people can't taste. I wouldn't describe it as bitter so much as "bile squirted fresh from a liver". If no one else is tasting the same thing I'm tasting in the first place, how did they select it out?

This isn't the first time that someone has tried to tell me, "but THESE brussels sprouts are really good, because we cook them right, trust me." And brussels sprouts sauteed in a little garlic and olive oil can smell really, really tempting, I've just had my heart broken too many times.
posted by Horkus at 12:40 PM on November 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


The last time I ate a whole sprout was almost certainly that day in maybe 1979 when I was told to eat them, ate them, and promptly puked.

As an adult, I've tried them, and they're certainly better than when I was a kid, but... Eh. I can't see why I wouldn't just eat broccoli instead if I want to eat brassica.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:43 PM on November 25, 2022


I've never been a big fan of Brussel Sprouts, and I suspect I am one of the people who has the genetic coding to taste propylthiouracil, as I've avoided broccoli and lots of other bitter flavours in my life. My wife's grandmother used to make a dish involving endives and brussel sprouts during the holidays, and it was always a solid "no" for me.

However, as I've gotten older and was introduced to pan-roasting brussel sprouts, I've gotten more accepting of them. And broccoli is ok now, but I enjoy it more raw than any other method of preparation (frankly, I feel that way about a lot of vegetables).
posted by nubs at 12:51 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


When I worked as a student cook in the college dining hall we used to draw straws to see who got to steam the Brussels sprouts. The smell when opening the steamer was something no one wanted to experience a second time.

Needless to say, no one ate them anyway.
posted by tommasz at 1:33 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I can’t stand any of the brassicas cooked, though my reaction to Brussels sprouts is legendary in my family.
Since I’m fine with coleslaw but hate cooked cabbage, I’ve often wondered if I would like raw shredded sprouts.
But I haven’t wondered enough to try it.

I do grow and cook them though, for my wife, but the deer seem to get most of them.
posted by MtDewd at 1:42 PM on November 25, 2022


Horkus, according to the article that bitterness is likely propylthiouracil. The minority who can taste this compound find it to be very bitter. The other two compounds that were bred out of commercial Brussel sprouts are ones that presumably most people can taste.

I’m a big fan of the new and improved Brussels sprouts
posted by Emmy Noether at 1:47 PM on November 25, 2022


And that was back when no one knew how to cook them, so you usually got them either boiled to death or, if you were very lucky, steamed to death.

Boiled and/or steamed to death was the only way I experienced brussels sprouts right up until somewhere around 2010. The first time I had roasted brussels sprouts was a revelation, compared to the slightly stinky mushy overcooked versions I'd always experienced before.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:52 PM on November 25, 2022


See also: my mom's habit of serving cauliflower in raw florets with no seasoning.

This is easily my favorite vegetable. I can snack on those crunchy things like potato chips.
posted by straight at 1:59 PM on November 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I will eat them roasted and crunchy, did last night actually.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:04 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


serving cauliflower in raw florets with no seasoning.

As if there were some other way...
posted by chavenet at 2:05 PM on November 25, 2022


Giant bag from Costco, ends cut off, yucky leaves pulled off, steamed. Very good just plain! Or, an excellent sauce to go with: dijon mustard + maple syrup + balsamic vinegar.

Frozen brussel sprouts, on the other hand, NEVER GOOD omg. (I've tried roasting the frozen ones. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.)

I did not like them as a kid. Pretty sure mom boiled em.
posted by Glinn at 2:15 PM on November 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


When my kids were growing up, I served them roasted brussel sprouts and steamed broccoli fairly often. Both would go into the big bowl someone gave us marked "Ice Cream", and they would argue over how many each would get to eat.
They also occasionally helped me pick those brussel sprouts at our farm co-op.
I miss those arguments over the Ice Cream bowl.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 2:17 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


“… they eventually produced a crop that was both tasty and economically viable.”

Hmmm, so what the article is saying, to paraphrase, is that for decades sprouts were horrible, and the farmers knew they were horrible, but they still sold them because 🤷‍♂️. And now they’ve made a type of sprout that can be harvested, but doesn’t taste bad? I am just not sold on your vision of “tastes good”, international sprout farming corporation. But best of luck with your horrible fart ball vegetable.
posted by The River Ivel at 2:31 PM on November 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best ones I've had are the ones that I forgot about in the oven. I pulled out a sheet of blackened and charred sprouts that just before, I carefully cut in half, drizzled with olive oil, and placed in the oven. I was disappointed with myself, but the rule is that you at least eat what you cook. I tried out one of the least burned sprouts and it was fantastic, no hint of bitterness. Dumped the rest into a bowl and ate them all.

Every time I've ordered in a restaurant, they're not as good. The edges are lightly singed, in the Instagram-worthy way that contrasts the bright green of the sprout, and they're often tossed with some other fancy ingredient. But you can taste the bitterness and remember - this is why people didn't like Brussels sprouts.
posted by meowzilla at 2:44 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


AND my mom usually overcooked them…

Your mom, my mom and all the cooks for every 50s grade, jr. high and high school hot lunch program everywhere. I could not stand to smell overcooked spinach and brussels sprouts then and would not touch them. Now I love spinach raw in salads or lightly steamed and sprinkled with grated cheese. But I have no interest in brussel sprouts whatsoever to this day
posted by y2karl at 2:47 PM on November 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


Back in the 70s and 80s my mom used to boil Brussels sprouts, marinate them in a balsamic vinaigrette and serve them cold with cherry tomatoes. It was delicious then and it's delicious now.

I never understood all the Brussels sprouts jokes until I had some plain boiled ones at a friend's house.
posted by workerant at 2:55 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


for decades sprouts were horrible, and the farmers knew they were horrible, but they still sold them because 🤷‍♂️.

Not that different from Red Delicious apples, which may have ruined apples for a generation.
posted by meowzilla at 3:09 PM on November 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


There was an ice cream place in Scotland which made and sold Brussel Sprouts ice cream, though unfortunately I haven't yet tried it.
posted by Wordshore at 3:15 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I liked them a lot as a kid, when all veg were boiled and soggy. Then I learned from Laurie Colwin to roast them with pancetta, olive oil, salt, pepper. Colwin is a wonderful novelist and excellent food writer and I miss her.
posted by theora55 at 3:18 PM on November 25, 2022


I don’t think either of my parents like Brussels sprouts (definitely not my dad), so I truly don’t believe I ate them at all until I tried them for myself in my mid twenties (~2008). So I don’t have any childhood memories to compare them to. Even though my first exposure to them was possibly the worst choice (frozen in butter sauce reheated in the microwave), I could tell they were a food I’d enjoy. I cook them much better nowadays (usually browned on the stovetop, as I’m eating right now). I maintain that some people who dislike them have never had them prepared correctly, but it’s not a moral failing not to like them.
posted by obfuscation at 3:44 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Brussels sprouts were the stereotypical example of food nobody (including my parents and grandparents) liked when I grew up, so I never ate it until relatively recently.

Broccoli was the thing my my mom (an otherwise good cook!) tended to boil to death and then serve with really bland cheese sauce which didn't help. I discovered in adulthood that I liked broccoli cooked literally any other way, or raw with dip or hummus.
posted by Foosnark at 4:30 PM on November 25, 2022


I also never ate them until I tried them for myself around 2014, but they are my absolute favorite now. I'm pushing to plant some in the garden next spring--when I'd really like to have some that ripen at different points on the stalk, because then I can eat them all summer off just one or two stalks instead of harvesting them all at once!
posted by sciatrix at 4:37 PM on November 25, 2022


It's common squat meals are pay what you can, or a like 3 EUR or whatever. I once went to a burner meetup in some squat-like place near Zurich, not sure their exact legal statue, but I gauged the place to be an official-ish squat.

Anyways, there was a meal there being sold.. for 25 CHF.. which included some dish of brussels sprouts and chestnuts.. easily the best tasting squat food I've ever eaten.. even vs a number of French ones.

I love brussels sprouts and chestnuts anyways, but learning that they make a great pairing was wonderful, and so is being able to tell people I paid 25 CHF for a squat meal in Switzerland.
posted by jeffburdges at 5:16 PM on November 25, 2022


Tried them again yesterday.

Still not that good.
posted by freakazoid at 5:26 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Guys, you've never had terrible Brussels sprouts until you've put them in a little basket with potatoes and carrots and cooked them in a pressure cooker until nearly liquid. Then served plain with dinner. There was not enough gravy in the world that could make those edible. I was a ridiculously well-behaved child but that ended at Brussels sprouts.

These days I halve them, pan fry them with bacon or speck so that they're lightly seared in the rendered fat, add in some freshly cracked black pepper, a small amount of garlic, and finish with a drizzle of maple syrup.
posted by ninazer0 at 5:27 PM on November 25, 2022


As a kid I too was told by my peers that I shouldn't like sprouts, but I did anyway because all my picky eating resources were fully committed to a flat refusal to eat bananas ever again.

Raw carrots were my other childhood food bugbear. I didn't object to their taste or mouth feel, but for the life of me I could not swallow them regardless of how much I'd chewed them first. Throat just wouldn't. Any raw carrot I was forced to eat, I used to chew until it was just a flavourless pap until I'd found an opportunity to spit it discreetly out. I could chew and swallow paper more easily than carrots.

Carrots came good some time in my teens, but bananas had to wait for what felt akin to a religious conversion experience in my thirties after having been fed one by the wonderful woman who later agreed to marry me. Sprouts, though, remain much as they ever were; they were always good and they don't seem to have changed. Steamed or boiled: fine. Halved and oven roasted with oil and salt: wonderful.

I'm in Australia. Could generations of truly horrible sprouts perhaps be mainly a US thing?
posted by flabdablet at 5:28 PM on November 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I had them in the US back in the day and originally associated them with a pleasant and bizarre childhood memory - steamed, buttered and served to me at the personal home of my daycare center's owner after my father was late. I remembered liking them and tried to recreate it as an adolescent but the sprouts I had were freezer burned and it did come out bitter - my parents did not buy or serve this item often because they believed they were "healthy food people suffer through" territory. Now I roast them with olive oil and a spice blend, and they're awesome.
posted by Selena777 at 5:52 PM on November 25, 2022


I first had brussel sprouts as a kid when my uncle made a curry out of them. I had heard of the reputation of brussel sprouts at that point, but that curry was DELICIOUS and I never understood the hate. (Brussel sprouts weren't really common in Malaysia but my family did like bittergourd, which I still detest. Brussel sprouts never tasted bitter to me though.)

Many years later I watched an Oprah episode where the mums were boiling vegetables (inc brussel sprouts) to death and oh duh!!! Of course they'd taste terrible!!! No no, do a curry or a stir fry or something!!
posted by creatrixtiara at 7:53 PM on November 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


(the curry was made in the UK so I don't know if there's some differences with British produce or something)
posted by creatrixtiara at 7:55 PM on November 25, 2022


When did they start being sold in bags or has it always been that way? I remember my mom buying a big stalk of them at Wegmans or the farmers’ market and we had to pop them off etc. I was always a bit squelked out by how they grew all knobby. my husband does all our cooking now and I wandered into the kitchen yesterday gobsmacked to see a big bag from the store all ready to cook. (He never had them as a kid and so never knew them to arrive any other way…)
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:06 PM on November 25, 2022


I had them back in the day and always liked them just fine. Growing them on the stalk is also cool, but ours were always small vs store ones. My kids love them too, so we eat them pretty often.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:23 PM on November 25, 2022


Best ones I've had are the ones that I forgot about in the oven. I pulled out a sheet of blackened and charred sprouts . . .

This is the way. The best brussel sprouts I made were always just a little charred. Almost always set off the smoke detector. Yes I was doing something wrong; I once had some at a restaurant that had amazeballs roasted brussel sprouts that somehow managed the outside crispy and the inside just right. It wasn’t temp or time, I experimented with both extensively.

This post is timely, I just got a bag of brussel sprouts to make. I haven’t honestly in 2-3 years. My apartment has horrible ventilation, so I’m almost certainly going to be setting the smoke alarm off. My best brussel sprouts were made with a balsamic vinegar and sliced almonds.

The balsamic vinegar I used was a Very old bottle that somehow made it with me over a decade, having been forgotten in my old pantry. I’ve got about an inch left in the bottle. Probably enough for brussel sprouts but I think I’ll use newer vinegar until I’m sure I remember how to cook them.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:54 AM on November 26, 2022


Add some slices of lemon when roasting.

Interesting that several people are against frozen sprouts, whereas I have read several "top chefs" who swear by them as "Brussels sprouts need to be frosted"
posted by bifurcated at 1:38 AM on November 26, 2022


But as an adult I have realized that they don't like me. Those vegetables, along with green cabbage, rutabaga and turnip, give me horrible indigestion and....er, other gastric issues. (Lemme put it this way - a year ago, my sister in law served roasted brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving, and they smelled so good I decided to risk it and I ate one single sprout, which was only the size of a small marble. And even that was enough to affect me to the point that my father had to roll down the window during our ride home.)

Some people refer to Brussel Sprouts as "Windy Cabbages". I love them but there is almost always some blowback.

Brussel Sprout Patty Melt recipe. Today's forecast includes some wind!
posted by srboisvert at 2:35 AM on November 26, 2022


My impression was that people always thought they were bitter, but maybe I'm assuming that what I heard as a kid was always true.

Are there any reports from people who remember pre-60s Brussels sprouts saying that they rather suddenly got nasty? Or maybe people saying that home-grown Brussels sprouts were better?
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:44 AM on November 26, 2022


When I was a kid (well after the 1960s timeline the article talks about) we had both home-grown and store-bought brussels sprouts, and I hated both. I don't remember either being particularly bitter as much as slightly stinky and horribly overcooked (because that was apparently How It Was Done at the time).
posted by Dip Flash at 6:35 AM on November 26, 2022


obxkcd: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:54 AM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


As for preparation, all it takes is to halve the things and fry them up in butter, salt, and chili flake.

As for journalism, I would not have cited this source in a FPP, because they used the "Make x y Again" snowclone. It is not yet far enough in the past for this to read as anything but an endorsement of fascism, to me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:58 AM on November 26, 2022


Why did no one in the United States know how to cook vegetables until 2012?
posted by rhymedirective at 7:41 AM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


As a kid I too was told by my peers that I shouldn't like sprouts, but I did anyway because all my picky eating resources were fully committed to a flat refusal to eat bananas ever again.

Raw carrots were my other childhood food bugbear. I didn't object to their taste or mouth feel, but for the life of me I could not swallow them regardless of how much I'd chewed them first. Throat just wouldn't. Any raw carrot I was forced to eat, I used to chew until it was just a flavourless pap until I'd found an opportunity to spit it discreetly out. I could chew and swallow paper more easily than carrots.


Oh, hey, me too! I thought I was the only one with the carrot thing. And then one day I just suddenly could. Mystery.
Never have changed my mind about bananas, but fortunately I managed to marry the only other person in the world with correct opinions about bananas, so they are banned from our house and everything's fine until some yahoo decides to eat one on the bus.
I did and do like sprouts, despite my mum's conviction that unadorned steamed vegetables are the Best Food and no one should require anything fancy like roasting or seasoning. Not that fond of most other brassicas though.
posted by BlueNorther at 9:34 AM on November 26, 2022


I KNEW IT. This has always mystified me, how something I hated so much as a kid has become one of my favorite foods. I know tastes change as you get older, but this was on another level from other foods, like the squick reaction I used to get from tomatoes and zucchini. A lot of it was an aversion to textures that I gradually lost, and that I see in my own kids now. (God forbid two foods actually TOUCH each other on the plate.)
posted by gottabefunky at 10:04 AM on November 26, 2022


Weirdly, I still really don’t like the smell of cooking Brussels sprouts.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:07 AM on November 26, 2022


I can report a third case of "the carrot thing", with my partner experiencing carrots as un-swallowable "mulch in the mouth" (direct quote) until they mysteriously became edible in the past two years. They are amazed to learn of others with identical experiences.

(Good carrots that have a strong flavour, such as you might get from a farmers market or a weekly community vegetable pick-up scheme, can still be a challenge sometimes. But it's night-and-day different to how it was.)
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 12:06 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Never understood why anyone would eat these things when I was a kid. Brussels sprouts tasted like the smell of urine when you haven’t drank any water for a long time. As an adult I’ve never had one, because why would I spend my own money that I worked for on the tiny piss cabbage?
posted by rodlymight at 9:59 PM on November 26, 2022


But as an adult I have realized that they don't like me. Those vegetables, along with green cabbage, rutabaga and turnip, give me horrible indigestion and....er, other gastric issues.
I found that alpha-galactosidase made a big difference here. Keeping a bottle in my backpack was the humane thing to do for cubicle neighbors.
posted by adamsc at 11:39 AM on November 27, 2022


Adamsc - I actually just avoid the five vegetables that are triggers.

Actually, it's been a fascinating thing - I got a little worried at one point because the brassicas are supposed to be so good for you, but I can't eat them. But then I noticed that kale, collard greens, napa cabbage, and bok choi were also in the brassica family - and they give me no problem. Even more fascinating, turnips are a no-go for me - but turnip greens I have no problem with. I tested that once by literally cutting the greens off a turnip, cooking both separately, and eating first one and then the other. The turnip itself was a problem, the greens from that same turnip were not.

So I think it's something about the texture; if it's a woodier stem or a particularly tough leaf, then I have issues. If it's a tenderer leaf, I'm good. So I just switched to kale and turnip greens and called it a day.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:33 AM on November 28, 2022


In 1985, John Waters described Brussels sprouts as "little balls of hell, limp and wilted." Now he loves them, because he's not eating his mom's boiled monstrosities. I had the exact same experience. My mom not only boiled them with nothing added, they were the one vegetable she insisted we finished. I think she assumed that they tasted so bad, they had to be good for you. I now also love them, as long as my mom isn't cooking them.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 11:25 AM on November 28, 2022


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