The New Complete Book of Food

 The New Complete Book of Food

Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food

Antiflatulence diet

Low-fiber diet

Buying This Food

Look for: Firm, compact heads with bright, dark-green leaves, sold loose so that you can

choose the sprouts one at a time. Brussels sprouts are available all year round.

Avoid: Puffy, soft sprouts with yellow or wilted leaves. The yellow carotenes in the leaves

show through only when the leaves age and their green chlorophyll pigments fade. Wilting

leaves and puffy, soft heads are also signs of aging.

Avoid sprouts with tiny holes in the leaves through which insects have burrowed.

Storing This Food

Store the brussels sprouts in the refrigerator. While they are most nutritious if used soon

after harvesting, sprouts will keep their vitamins (including their heat-sensitive vitamin C)

for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Store the sprouts in a plastic bag or covered bowl to protect them from moisture loss.

Preparing This Food

First, drop the sprouts into salted ice water to flush out any small bugs hiding inside. Next,

trim them. Remove yellow leaves and leaves with dark spots or tiny holes, but keep as many

of the darker, vitamin A–rich outer leaves as possible. Then, cut an X into the stem end of

the sprouts to allow heat and water in so that the sprouts cook faster.

What Happens When You Cook This Food

Brussels sprouts contain mustard oils (isothiocyanates), natural chemicals that break down

into a variety of smelly sulfur compounds (including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) when

the sprouts are heated, a reaction that is intensified in aluminum pots. The longer you cook

the sprouts, the more smelly compounds there will be. Adding a slice of bread to the cook-

ing water may lessen the odor; keeping a lid on the pot will stop the smelly molecules from

floating off into the air.

But keeping the pot covered will also increase the chemical reaction that turns cooked

brussels sprouts drab. Chlorophyll, the pigment that makes green vegetables green, is sensi-

tive to acids. When you heat brussels sprouts, the chlorophyll in their green leaves reacts

chemically with acids in the sprouts or in the cooking water to form pheophytin, which is