Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts

Brussels sprouts are one of those vegetables that everyone claimed to dislike yet everyone served at Christmas anyway. The first British recipe for them appeared in the 1840s, served in “the Belgian mode,” and they have a long association with Flanders. Essentially tiny cabbages, Brussels sprouts once had the reputation of being impossible to cook: they were generally boiled whole, and the middle tended to remain raw while the outside turned to mush. To avoid that outcome, they were traditi