Why it works: Brussels sprouts and bread work together. They rank in the top 73% of all ingredient pairs. Both carry cis-3-hexenol, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the sprouts
Preheat oven to 375.
Prepare the sprouts by cutting a thin slice off the root end of each and then cutting a slit on that end to establish even cooking.
In a large pot of boiling salted water blanch sprouts for 5 minutes.
Drain, drop in ice cold water and drain again.
Assemble the gratin
Sauté bacon until limp, not crisp.
Drain and coarsely chop.
Mix the sprouts and bacon together and spread the mixture in a buttered gratin dish.
Pour cream over the sprouts and bacon mixture.
Dot with bread crumbs and butter.
Bake for 20 minutes or until hot.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Brussels sprouts + breadtop 73% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together0 recipes
Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
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Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + breadtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,782 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Brussels sprouts + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together20 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brussels sprouts
- Form the main body of the dish, cooked tender and held together by the cream.
- Bacon
- Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the sprouts as they bake.
- Heavy cream
- Adds richness and moisture, thickening as it heats to coat the sprouts.
- Bread crumbs
- Crisp and brown on top, giving the gratin a golden, textured crust.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour and helps the topping brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Blanching and cooling the sprouts. Boiling for only 5 minutes and then plunging into ice water stops cooking so the sprouts stay bright and tender rather than mushy or grey. Overcooking releases sulfurous compounds and softens the texture.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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