One factor is that for anything that’s been grown, consistently in a “natural fertilizer” environment is that there’s no way to tell whether the vegetable contains any inclusions. Some vegetables are notorious for it, actually. Then there are things like leeks, celery, lettuce or bok choy, which all grow in such a way that it’s easy for fragments of dirt or growth media to get stuck onto individual leaves or stalks. And then may be difficult to remove by simply washing.
And, in places like Cameroon, I’m not sure that access to clean, safe drinking water is such that washing is a viable alternative to cooking the life out of things.
It’ s funny - today I ate my first Brussels sprout. I made some for my folks, knowing my dad likes them. I followed a recipe from Cooks Illustrated. When they were supposed to be done, I poked them, and my mom poked them, and we judged them not-quite. When we did decide they were done, I drained them and realized, hey, these went too long, they have that overcooked cabbage smell. At the table my dad says “Hey, these are great, but you should have cooked them longer.”
Dad is 76 and from the deep South. Figures.
PS - I’m digging the sprouts, but I suspect they’re responsible for current air pollution levels.
I was born in 1941 and shool dinners in the 50s were fucking atrocious.
Cabbage and the like was boiled until whatever goodness originally in the veg was no more, all we had remaining was a messy soggy splodge of green glop.
Same with mashed spuds, they were either full of uncooked lumps or watery as hell.
Unfortunately we were still rationed up to our testicles so you had no choice, eat or go hungry
To this day I still cannot abide mashed spuds but I love cabbage NOT OVERCOOKED I hasten to add
Ah, yes. I see now. Those leafy things. I was considering veggies that one would simply remove the skins on prior to normal cooking. I don’t imagine that among the poorer classes they have such amenities as iodine or other sanitizers for their leafy goods. In other places I’ve been, we usually effect such treatment upon leafy veggies, because, well, not so much for the use of deliberate “night soil” but for related hygiene concerns as a result of the people who do the harvesting.
Oh, try roasting them next time! I always thought I disliked Brussels Sprouts, until I tried cutting them in half (top to bottom, so each half has a bit of the stalky center to hold it together) and tossing them with some garlic (minced or whole cloves), sliced red onion, olive oil and rosemary. Roast in a hot oven (425?), tossing them periodically until they carmelize a bit and are soft enough to skewer - usually about 30 minutes. This is also great with added chunked sweet potato, carrots (or baby carrots), turnips, white potato, gobo (burdock root) - whatever rooty vegetables you have on hand (increase the cooking time for harder veg).
The flavor is completely different, deep and nutty and sweet. Awesome!
Canned peas are pretty much inedible IMO–we used to get them at school for lunch. I think they cooked them too. Bleh.
Mushy peas, to me, seemed a lot like baby food peas. I didn’t care for it. But it was a lot better than canned peas. I had them from a fish & chips shop in either London or Sheffield, not sure which now.
Sounds like my dad. He’s 68 and from Maryland, but descended from a Confederate general… When we make Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving, we will cook them for only 10 minutes, then put his in for a little longer. We have a GREAT exhaust fan in our kitchen (it looks like the fume hoods we had in high school chemistry class), so hopefully the smell won’t be too bad…
Yeah, not overcooking them doesn’t help with the other smell problem with Brussels sprouts, the one that happens several hours to a day or so later…
I wonder if it had anything to do with a generation of people growing up during with first Depression and then Rationing impacting their cooking habits? I know that some of the stuff people in the UK had to eat during WW2 wasn’t exactly premium-grade.
Hmm - I have some turnips from my CSA just sitting there in the fridge… They were good, though, I did them in garlic with pine nuts, and the bacon that was supposed to go with the pork chops (ugh) seemed like it fit the sprouts much better. It was a pretty good success except for Dad.
