They most certainly have taste, I don’t find it very strong. A little salt and pepper makes is all they need IMO.
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In italy people in the countryside know where it grows, and will go harvest wild asparagus in the spring, they won’t tell you where though 
Where I live now theres a producer, we were walking nearby this last fall, and saw this field full of 7ft+ frilly stuff, and it took a minute or two to clock that it was the asparagus at full maturity. Can’t wait to try some from them.
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So did you become a cannibal or a pea?
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I’ve read this far down in the thread and been totally baffled by the numerous descriptions of sprouts as bitter.
I guess this is why.
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As a non-taster, my question through this thread has been “So why have I noticed the improved taste of Brussels sprouts?”
My guess is that the breeding programs are probably not only focused on bitterness. Also, moving to roasting.
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Roasting and bacon fat are game changers.
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By the time they produce fronds the stems get woody and mostly inedible. I think the fronds can be eaten, though it’s not common.
You need to let some portion of the stems go leafy, and flower so they crown can properly store enough starch underground to produce in the following season. It’s essential to keeping a bed going.
I think that’s why normal garden and commercial planting tends to run 7 years. Those fuckers will send off shoots and drop seeds and what have when maintained as a dense bed rather than just petering out when planted in rows and harvested more agressively.
The old school farmers here would set off a quarter acre or so at the edge of their property and build a bed, keep them going for years. And it was once common to plant them in around your mailbox.
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You beat me to it; it’s all in the preparation and seasoning.
Roasted brussel sprouts with olive oil, garlic and rosemary are quite tasty.
Boiling anything but stuff like eggs, potatoes or corn will usually ruin it…
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My understanding is that little kids are more sensitive to things like bitter or pungent compounds that a lot of vegetables have in small amounts, defensive substances that we normally shrug off but smaller bodies have a bit more difficulty with. So it makes sense they tend to be pickier about them. A few things here are written as if taste is a constant you learn to appreciate, but it’s not, you genuinely change as you grow.
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Yes! That’s exactly how I roast mine at home, sometimes finished with a splash of balsamic.
I’m with you on boiling being a selectively utilized cooking method as well, but I do have a strange affinity for boiled turnips. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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Well, I must disagree insofar as my own-grown sprouts are concerned. In March when there are still quite a few left on my plants (I don’t start picking until just before xmas day and then after that not until first frost if we have not had one by then) the bugs are starting to get to them so I strip what’s left, clean them up, blanch and freeze. They’re just fine when defrosted/microwaved. I dunno what mass-produced industrial scale frozen sprouts have done to them that’s different…
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I read an article about bitter tasting plants, and the theory of the writer had to do with the foods that the mother eats while the kid is in utero come across differently to the kid. It rang true to me because my mother loves bitter herbs, and ate A LOT of watercress and herb salads when I was a bun in the oven. When I was very small, I’d go eat that stuff by the handful, because it grew wild where we lived, in a camper by a spring coming out of a mountain. That’s why she ate so much of it, it was something she liked, and it was free.
My younger siblings were gestated in the US, where food was all the regular grocery store stuff, and they had much more expected bitter food aversions as littles.
I don’t know the details of how or why, but it rang true to me at the time. At the same time, as a toddler, I’d eat cloves of garlic raw, so maybe I’m just a weirdo. For what it’s worth, I’ve always loved brussels sprouts, and basically every other vegetable I’ve ever had, as long as they are not boiled to mush.
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That will be capers. I love them.
Bought some recently to test that out. They were rank. That is not to say that sprouts after a cold snap aren’t better. Also they benefit from being sold on the vine they grow on. Seem fresher.
I love sprouts, always liked them. Ate loads this year as vegetable supplies were a bit tricky in the new year. Them and cauliflower vegan butter chicken.
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Bring back the bitters!
Neither do I. But don’t try them.
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in the Netherlands, where Brussels sprouts have a simpler name: spruitjes.
It makes so much sense that in the Low Countries, they call Brussels sprouts “sprouts”. It’s much like the fact that in Germany, German shepherds are called “shepherds”.
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Yes - it was even the 90s when I learned that they are delightful when properly steamed.
PS: I love your beer, too 
I guess I may be over applying the idea of a neutral food to you comment. Do you find that the taste of brussel sprouts is easily masked by seasoning beyond salt and pepper? I could also be stuck with the older variety of brussels sprouts and have been assigning them a stronger flavor profile than most people.
Personally I like them tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven with lots of whole garlic cloves.
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I’ll just leave this here for you:
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I just moved here in January of 2020, so things have not beeen running… normally. I’m hoping to try their spring asparagus in the next month or so… not sure how good the fullplants are, even in Italy, they harvest wild sprouts in spring, not full grown plants any time after.
These guys seem to be doing asparagus on a big scale (I’d say an acre or two, though we could only see part of the field, could be bigger), there’s a michelin starred restraunt near us that gets stuff from them, though they only seem to do spring crops. As my experience in september seems to indicate, they let them grow out to make enough starch to produce a bumper crop every spring. They seem to be a single crop producer, at least in that field.
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