Name: Richard Olney’s Sprouts Gratin
Ingredients: 500 g (1 lb) small, compact Brussels sprouts, outer leaves removed, parboiled 12 minutes, drained and coarsely chopped; salt, pepper; handful (⅓ US cup) breadcrumbs; 150 ml (¼ pt, ½ US cup) double cream; butter (for gratin dish and surface); 30 g (1 oz) butter; 60 g (2 oz) lean bacon, cut into in widths

This was the recipe that set off alarm bells in the head of Robert Shoffner, wine and food editor of The Washingtonian, when he read how to make the same dish in 1983 in a review copy of Richard Nelson’s American Cooking. Shoffner is fond of Brussels sprouts, and he thought he saw similarities in Nelson’s recipe to his favourite Richard Olney recipe from S