My favorite way of cooking them is to put a little salted water in a good-sized lidded cooking pot, bring it to a boil, then add cleaned fresh brussels sprouts, cover, lower heat, and simmer anywhere from 5 to 8 minutes — start testing for tenderness with a fork at 5 minutes.

When they are just barely tender, drain them and return them to the cooking pot. Now either throw in a good amount of butter and a little salt, or add a good splash of balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil. Then cover the pan and let it sit, off the heat, for a few minutes so the sprouts can finish cooking. Very sweet and quite delicious!

An English friend of mine even managed to make frozen sprouts pleasant — by adding a teaspoon of sugar to the cooking water, and loads of butter when they were tender. Not something I would do, but it worked.