Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts

The key to crispy sprouts is high heat and not overcrowding the pan. Cut side down ensures maximum caramelization. Don't add maple until after roasting or it will burn. Grade B maple syrup has more robust flavor than Grade A. Sprouts should be deeply browned, almost charred on edges.

Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) take their name from Brussels, Belgium, where they were cultivated and developed in the 13th century and spread from there through northern European kitchen gardens. Despite their long history in European cooking, Brussels sprouts gained a reputation in American households — particularly among children — as a vegetable to be endured rather than enjoyed, largely because they were routinely boiled or steamed in a way that released their sulphurous aromatic compounds without any compensating flavor development. The transformation came in American restaurant kitchens from the mid-2000s through the 2010s, when chefs discovered that roasting Brussels sprouts at high heat (400°F or above) caramelizes the cut surfaces through the Maillard reaction, converting the bitter glucosinolates into sweeter compounds while the leaves crisp at the edges. Maple syrup has been produced by Indigenous peoples of the northeastern woodlands — including the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Algonquian peoples — for centuries before European contact, and remains a defining product of New England and Quebec. The combination of maple's caramel sweetness and bacon's smoke with the bitter-sweet depth of properly roasted Brussels sprouts is a balance that transformed the vegetable into one of the most ordered American vegetable dishes of the 2010s.