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Brussels Sprouts {Chmix De Bruxelles)

A dish of Brussels sprouts prepared in various styles, including sautéed, boiled, and served with butter, cream, or broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts {Chmix De Bruxelles)

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil a large pot of salted water.

  2. Add Brussels sprouts and cook until tender but not overdone.

  3. Drain well.

Toss and sauté

  1. Toss cooked sprouts in ½ cup melted butter, 2 teaspoons minced parsley, lime juice, salt, and pepper.

  2. Sauté 1 tablespoon minced onion in ½ cup butter until golden.

  3. Add sprouts and toss for 3 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

Finish with gravy and butter

  1. Stir sprouts over low heat with a few spoonfuls of meat gravy or giblet broth until absorbed.

  2. Season with spiced salt.

  3. Toss sprouts in ½ cup melted butter, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  4. Serve cold sprouts with tarragon vinegar.

Creamed version

  1. Pour 1 cup cream over them.

  2. Butter a sauté pan and lay sprouts without overlapping.

  3. Season with spiced salt.

  4. Cover with boiled milk.

  5. Simmer gently until done.

  6. Drain and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together547 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts
Main vegetable; cooking turns them tender and mildly sweet, with a savoury, nutty flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky coating that carries flavour over the sprouts.
Onion
Sautéing until golden builds sweetness and a toasted, aromatic base.
Lime juice
Acidity brightens the buttery sprouts and balances their richness.
Cream
Adds fat and body, giving the sprouts a rich, smooth sauce.
Meat gravy or giblet broth
Supplies moisture and savoury meaty flavour as it is absorbed into the sprouts.

The step that matters

Cook the sprouts until tender but not overdone. Overcooked Brussels sprouts turn soft, grey and mushy, and they release more sulfur compounds, which gives a strong, unpleasant smell and taste. Stopping when they are just tender keeps their texture firm and their flavour fresh before they are finished in butter or sauce.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, lime, onion, pepper, meat, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, lime, onion, pepper, meat, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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