Humdrum, bitter and smelly? Wait – there’s more to these little green wonder buds than you might think. Cast aside your preconceptions, urges our Brussels correspondent, Dixe Wills
Pity the poor old sprout: 86% water, 9% carbohydrate, 3% protein, 2% sundry other stuff and, according to a good many people, 100% disgusting. The sprout’s main crime, it appears, is to be one of a small number of British crops that can be harvested in December, a fact that has helped usher it on to festive dinner plates the length and breadth of the country.
Bitter as a Boxing Day family argument, as unloved as discarded wrapping paper (and the celebrity autobiography that was once inside it), some view the Brussels sprout as an aberration, a reminder from the universe that we can’t have nice things unless we have horrid things, too.
But is that really true any more? Whisper it, but perhaps the humble sprout has simply been the victim of terrible PR. So get ready to hold your nose, suppress your gag reflex and read on.
SOURCE OF THE SPROUT
Hmm, that name. Do we really have the Belgians to thank for them?
Perhaps surprisingly, ‘Brussels sprout’ is indeed derived from the Belgian capital owing to its popularity there during the Middle Ages. However, its origins as a farmed vegetable go back way beyond that (see ‘Meet the family’, right).
Why are they so bitter and bad-smelling (sprouts, that is, not Belgians)?
The smell comes about as a result of a glucosinolate compound in sprouts called sinigrin. This contains sulphur, which is released into the air when the sprout is boiled or steamed. As for the bitter taste, that has more to do with your genes. Or one gene in particular: TAS2R38. That’s the one that enables you to taste a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), which is found in sprouts.
Is it a myth that they’re sweeter after a frost?
That’d be a no. A frost or two does actually sweeten a sprout. That’s because the plant releases fructose – a natural sugar found in honey and fruits – as a sort of anti-freeze.
I love sprouts; is there an eating record I can attempt?
Happily, yes. But you’ll have to beat Swede Linus Urbanec who, in 2008, ate 31 sprouts in 60 seconds
