The British Christmas classic: sprouts tossed with crisp bacon, sweet chestnuts, and butter
Origin: United Kingdom
From the journey of Brussels Sprout.
No vegetable is more bound to the British Christmas than the Brussels sprout, and no way of cooking it is more traditional than tossed with chestnuts and bacon. It is the green that sits, without fail, on the British Christmas dinner plate beside the turkey, the roast potatoes, and the bread sauce, and the pairing with sweet chestnuts and crisp, smoky bacon is the festive treatment above all others, the richness and sweetness of the chestnut and the salt of the bacon turning a plain winter vegetable into something properly celebratory. The sprout reached Britain in the early nineteenth century and was taken up with an enthusiasm that has never waned, even as the nation argued endlessly over how (and whether) to enjoy it. For much of the twentieth century the British boiled their sprouts to a grey, sulphurous softness that earned the vegetable its poor reputation; the modern British kitchen has learned to stop the cooking while the sprouts are still bright and firm, then to finish them quickly with the bacon and chestnuts in foaming butter. Done so, the dish is a world away from the soft, bitter sprout of memory. This is the sprout at its most festive and most British, the dish that, for better or worse, defines the vegetable for a whole nation each December.
Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts are perfectly good and save much labour. For a vegetarian version, omit the bacon, use plenty of butter (or brown it for extra nuttiness), and add a little chopped sage. This is the classic accompaniment to the Christmas roast, but it earns a place beside any autumn or winter joint.
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