I came across this in a book - you can always tell how nasty a vegetable is by how much bacon is added. They were talking Brussel sprouts (which I like). They were joking, but I wondered if this was generally true?
Purists would say that you should not try to mask a vegetable’s bitter taste—that flavour is precisely the point of using Belgian “chicons”, etc., in a recipe.
I have the same thought for cuts of meat. The richer the sauce or seasoning, the worse the cut of meat is, and the need to dress (cover) it up or cook the hell out of it.
Obligatory note that anyone who regards Brussels sprouts as “nasty” has probably never had them roasted to a slightly crisp consistency with garlic and other essential spices.* True, a little added bacon never hurt anything, except maybe a chocolate milkshake. And not necessarily even then.
*it’s always possible they, like other deplorables including George H.W. Bush II have convinced themselves that a particular vegetable is inedible. In Bush’s case, it was broccoli.
Yeah, but that’s in a recipe. OP seems to be talking about the vegetable as the central focus?
In general, I would agree with that. The more that gets added to the usual version of the vegetable when served, the more the vegetable itself isn’t all that well liked on its own.
And I agree it’s not about recipes. It’s about how that vegetable is served. For instance, in my house, spinach was always served with an egg in it. But it was still called “spinach,” not some sort of “spinach quiche” or something. Similarly, green beans would often be served with bacon in it. Mashed potatoes always had butter.
Though most people don’t really think potatoes are nasty, just bland. So maybe that’s a caveat–sometimes the vegetable is bland, not nasty.
Counterexample: My favorite vegetable, and possibly even my favorite food overall, is a nice ripe home-grown tomato. And one of my favorite ways of eating that nice ripe tomato is on a BT (I usually don’t bother with the lettuce). Tomato and bacon are two robust flavors that complement each other wonderfully, rather than masking each other.
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and such may very well be edible. But why take chances?
My children assure me that almost all brassica varieties are poisonous.
You raised 'em right.
I usually only add bacon to small-leaf spinach (along with powder douce), which I don’t consider a nasty vegetable at all (As I also have it in salads and smoothies sans bacon).
Brussels sprouts and other brassicas get salt, pepper, garlic, EVOO and balsamic if done standalone, not bacon or cheesy sauces.
Unless I’m specifically cooking medieval, where butter, bacon and cheese show up quite a bit in relation to cooked greens.
I’ll just note that considerable effort has been exerted in recent decades to breed cultivars of some vegetables that are significantly less bitter in taste than in the past. The Brussels sprouts you find in the typical grocery today are not those of 50 years ago, as just one example. So past expressions of “ew, yuck” are referring to a different taste than one currently experiences. They really were a lot more bitter a half century ago.
This is the other thing - children’s sense of taste differs from that of adults’. So if someone tried Brussels sprouts 50 years ago as a child they might have hated them and refused them ever since, not realizing that as a someone middle-aged and with new cultivars they might actually like them, or at least find them more tolerable.
And different cooking techniques. I hated brussel sprouts as a child, but the only way they were ever prepared was boiled to mush.
Reacquainting myself with them as an adult, I don’t know how much is changing taste, how much is different cultivars, and how much is in the method of preparation, but I like them much more now(just baked with a bit of olive oil and salt).
I can’t beat the last two posters’ excellent points. IMO that’s about 90% of what’s going on.
Which ties into the “standard recipes” trope mentioned farther upthread. Lots of cooking is traditional, whether it’s family tradition or cultural tradition. If, e.g. green beans were always served casserole style with added bacon growing up, that’s what the term “green beans” means to you, and them served some other way just seems wrong. And if you’re (still) of limited palate, will taste wrong = bad now too.
We see this every Fall when we have the “What are your (US) Thanksgiving traditional foods?” thread. Lots of people find yams without marshmallows to be anathema, while others would no more put marshmallows in yams than put marshmallows in beef stew or in wine.
Many people still disguise the heck out of e.g. Brussels sprouts when it’s no longer so necessary. But when your long-time experience of them is disguised, they taste inappropriate any other way. Bruce Wayne grappling with the Joker would just be wrong.
I liked (liked, not just tolerated) Brussels sprouts even 40 years ago, so it’s not just all about the cultivars. But then, my mom knows how to cook vegetables, and doesn’t boil them into mush.
And cheese with Brussels sprouts, cabbage, or kale would just seem weird to me, but it goes well with broccoli or cauliflower. Logical, maybe not, but it’s what I’m used to.
Members of my family ridicule me for my dislike of broccoli, asparagus and cauliflower. I have tried them over the years but they will often trigger my gag reflex. But when I sit down to a lovely portion of lima or butter beans, collard greens or beets, there will be a lot of yuks and scrunched up faces. I usually don’t add anything to my vegies except a little salt. But a little chorizo with collard greens or a fruit flavored vinaigrette on fresh cooked beets makes then absolutely heavenly.
aka Satan’s Dingleberries
This discussion is lacking the word “supertaster”.
Be careful. That word is kinda like “Beetlejuice”. Once it gets said, it attracts them.
When I first met my wife she disliked asparagus and sweet corn on the cob. She found out if you put enough salt, ground pepper, and butter on it actually tastes pretty good. She now will eat asparagus with just a dab of butter and a little ground pepper.
People taste things differently (cilantro tastes like soap to me) and it may change as we get older. I used to love beets but now they taste like dirt to me. My daughter will eat raw carrots but not cooked ones, my son is opposite.