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Brussels Sprouts
Wash and pick off the outer leaves. Place the vegetables in a pan of boiling water, to which have been added a handful of salt and a very small piece of soda. Let them boil quickly until tender. Drain the water from them, and serve as hot as possible. Pepper slightly, and spread a little butter over them. Send a little melted butter to the table with them, but not on them. The best way to keep greens a good color is to put them into the saucepan when the water is boiling; keep them boiling fast all the time; let them have plenty of room and plenty of water; let them be uncovered, and take them up as soon as they are cooked. Time, then minutes for sprouts.
A late-Victorian method for boiled sprouts, built around the old anxiety about keeping green vegetables green. The technique is sound apart from one ingredient and one timing.
- Leave out the sodaThe "very small piece of soda" is baking soda, added to keep chlorophyll bright, especially in hard water. It softens cell walls to the point of sliminess and degrades much of the vitamin C. Well-salted water, plenty of it, gives a good colour if the sprouts come out promptly.
- A handful of saltRead this as generously salted water rather than a literal fistful. The volume of water implied is large, which is why the salt sounds excessive.
- TimingTen minutes at a hard boil will take small sprouts past bright green into grey. Five to seven minutes for sprouts of walnut size, tested with a knife tip at the base; halved sprouts need three to four.
- Why uncoveredThe instruction to leave the lid off matters. Volatile acids released by the vegetable are trapped in a closed pan and turn the chlorophyll olive; an open pan lets them escape.
- Trimming"Pick off the outer leaves" means the loose, yellowed ones only. Trim the stem flush; the traditional cross-cut in the base is of doubtful benefit.
- Butter at tableSending melted butter separately rather than tossing it through means the vegetable arrives dry and hot rather than sitting in cooling fat. A warmed sauceboat is the point.
- YieldNo quantity is given. Allow about 1 lb of sprouts for four as a side dish.