I always steam my sprouts, love 'em to bits.
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That’s pretty small scale all things considered.
A lot of the farms by me are tiny, as we’re an island and a lot of the farm land has been developed or converted to vineyard.
Individual fields tend to max out at 20 acres, a lot of them are only 5. We rotate heavily. Asparagus tend to end up in mixed fields near the main house, with the bees, berries, various sorts of greens and animals. Kinda a “market garden setup”.
Typical commercial farms are thousands of acres.
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I like them steamed but the caramelized flavor you get from roasting them is so much nicer. I’ve also taken to doing the same thing with broccoli for certain dishes.
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Yes, I do think it’s easy to mask them. They’re pretty bland to me, which doesn’t mean that they’re bad, I usually steam them, add some salt and pepper. I just get them frozen, or they’re usually sold in onion bags, brands like Green Giant, trader joe’s or Birdseye.
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We seem to have a nature/nurture debate here!
The lack of seeds is a red herring. If the plant being cloned had seeds, the clones would have seeds too. See Also: Granny Smith apples. And seedless fruits occur naturally as well - though they don’t reproduce themselves, the genes which combined to produce their seedlessness are still out there. If breeding seedless bananas was cheaper than cloning, that’s how we’d get bananas. See also: Mules.
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my father-in-law is still firmly against them, even when slathered in bacon.
Your father-in-law probably just doesn’t enjoy being covered in fat. Next time, try slathering the sprouts in bacon.
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Actually, the banana of the 1950s was called the “Gros Michel” [Big Mike] and was quite different than the present-day Cavendish variety—which is scheduled to go extinct soon, since it’s prey to fungal infection—Panama disease—that will eventually make it inviable: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bananas-extinction-cavendish-panama-disease_n_565eb2d3e4b08e945fed6712
There are other varieties of banana, including short red bananas; still, the hunt is on—and has been for several years—for the replacement of the beloved banana: 17 Types of Bananas | Different Varieties of Banana | Balcony Garden Web
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I boil or steam sprouts. I also roast them and saute them. Lightly boiled sprouts with some ground black pepper are simple and delicious. They were even good when I was young and they allegedly tasted too bitter.
I also like tart white grapefruit, which is almost extinct now that everybody wants sugary pink ones. It’s nice to have variety in tastes.
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Hipsters: “Brussels sprouts were grossly bitter when I was a kid”
Also hipsters: “This IPA is deliciously bitter!”
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Same in India. Never less than ~6 different types of bananas readily available. Even one that was eaten when the peel was very green. Mango season was cool, too, with a dozen different types available.
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I love sprouts but have always had them made with a bechamel sauce - takes away much of the bitterness. Even my wife will eat them when served this way. I am also partial to a good sprout madras curry…
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If you don’t get rid of them all in the first serving, save them for bubble and squeak, I use butter rather than dripping and add parsnips.
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Also, another huge reason they are better (in my home anyway). My dad used to just boil them until they were soft. I grill them with oil. Let em get caramelized on the outside. plenty of salt and pepper and a dash of maple syrup at the end. I find most vegetables people hate are because they experienced them boiled and unsalted.
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Half of humans have a mutation that make sprouts (and broccoli) taste bitter, the mutation also means they lack the enzyme needed to digest them efficiently. All the more for us. That and boiling the living snot out of the things. Boiling, salted water is all you need, no more than three minutes. Better yet: stir fry.
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I would also add your cultural and geographical upbringing. Much of this thread seems to lean toward bitterness is a bad thing but in the food of Thailand and Vietnam it is part of the balance with sour, salty and sweet.
On my first travel to the US I couldn’t get over how sweet everything tasted, and I’m just guessing here, that the the North American pallet may find bitter to be more bitter.
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IPAs are on the list of foods that supertasters often hate, along with Brussels Sprouts.
The only things mentioned on that list that I like are coffee and spicy food, and coffee is dependent on how it has been roasted.
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Thanks, I don’t eat mammals.
@anon73430903: Interesting. I’m happy to consume almost everything on that list. Just not the the particular brassicas listed. “Cabbage” is too vague, though, there are bitter cabbages and there are not-so-bitter cabbages.
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Our fruit & veg purchases at the open air market in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica were always amazing. We tried all kinds of things we couldn’t get back home, like breadfruit (planting breadfruit everywhere he went was the only good thing capt bligh ever did), agricultural pears (a vast local avocado which is tastier than any other kind I’ve tried), custard apples, star apples, sweetsop, soursop, ackee (scrambled eggs from a tree!), etc etc etc…I also squeezed Seville orange (civil arnj) juice into my water bottle every day.
There’s nothing in the world like a mango right off the tree! 
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if you and your mom are able to handle and process fresh vegetables with no difficulty that’s fantastic. i am too. not everyone has the mobility or the dexterity or the endurance to be able to do that. my mother is 83 and has severe scoliosis and limited endurance. using frozen vegetables give her a shortcut that allow her to prepare for herself a variety of dishes without completely ruining her for the rest of the day. this gives her the ability to continue to live independently and feed herself without becoming dependent on either the whims of someone else or having to pay someone else to do it. it’s all well and good to turn one’s nose up at frozen vegetables as “not good enough” but not everyone is blessed with the ability to deal with the fresh product.
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In the right recipe where the vegetables are cooked for long enough anyway, even frozen green/leafy vegetables work just as well as fresh ones- for instance, frozen spinach in a spanakopita, or frozen kale in a stew with sausages and beans.
