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Brussels Sprouts

A simple boiled Brussels sprouts served on buttered toast with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Brussels Sprouts

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and wash the Brussels sprouts thoroughly.

Cook the sprouts

  1. Boil the sprouts in salted water for 8 to 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the sprouts well.

Serve

  1. Toast the bread slices and butter both sides.

  2. Serve the sprouts on the buttered toast with melted butter on the side.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Walnut + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together714 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Brussels sprouts + walnuttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

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

  5. Brussels sprouts + buttertop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Provide the main vegetable, whose mild sweetness and tender texture come from boiling.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the toast and a fat to carry the sprouts.
Bread
Acts as a crisp, absorbent base that holds the sprouts and soaks up butter.

The step that matters

Drain the sprouts well. Water left on boiled sprouts dilutes the butter and makes the toast soggy, so thorough draining keeps the bread crisp and the flavor concentrated.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, bread, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, bread, butter. 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.

More brussels sprouts recipes

Boiled 26Puree 7Creamed 5Soup 4Gratin 3on Toast 3 See all 67 →

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