This picture of a highly magnified sprout molecule impresses with its crunchy texture and helps to remind me not to overboil the Brussels so as to make them lose their bite and go all mushy… 
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Steaming is your friend! Or in a fry pan (cut in 2) with bacon - delicious!
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Or for vegies, roast with hazelnuts!
Oh I haven’t tried that, that sounds nice too. Do you need to do the BS for a bit before adding the nuts (thinking of burning)?
Not being rude, I mean brussel sprouts not bull you know what 
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. I blanch the little B’s for a couple of minutes and then pop them all in together.
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I think I’ll chuck them in the steamer a couple of minutes before the other veg in there are ready, along with the Chinese cabbage I use lot of these days. 
I never boil these days.
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Might it not be a sign of your nascent brassicaphilia (love of green vegetables) and your obvious sensitivity towards this complex life form if you eased the sprouts into the steamer instead of chucking them in?
I know some chefs de cuisine like to affect à macho even brutalist operating style in their kitchens, but “have a little heart” (like the little sprout has itself) 
Give me a break Peter, I’m a cook, not a chef, and a reluctant one at that. 
But the term ‘chuck’ has a serious side, the spuds and carrots are already in there steaming away, and then, due to the brevity of their needs, the greens only go in in the last 5 minutes. Lifting the lid to add the latecomers has to be as brief as possible, in order to avoid scalding.
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They had sprouts for sale in Lidl (Montpon) today - cutting it tight to get them cooked by Xmas but perhaps start boiling them straight away on a high heat and may just about be there by Dec 25th!
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Think my mum must have taught you how to cook them 
We got some on Friday in Carrefour.
You’ve redeemed yourself, cook. No more will be said about your handling of the little B’s 
(no sprouts were available at the time of posting but other brassica volunteered to show species solidarity).
Lots of positive suggestions above, but I’m a tad depressed about how many posters buy their sprouts in supermarkets when most probably don’t need to - after all, it’s not England!
Even down here in the Midi, on local markets, producteurs are now selling their autumn/winter produce which includes sprouts. I never used to associate sprouts with the south of France, but only a couple of k’s upstream from us there’s fields full of 'em.
So, I know lots of oriental sprouts recipes, but perhaps we need need Vero to tell us what the French do with sprouts that’s different from how the Brits treat them (ie what’s beyond boiling them into mushy oblivion).
I used to get all my fruit and veg from the Sunday market here before the lockdown. But the supermarket is the only place where I can still handle and inspect the produce now. A must for me.
I do find it a trifle strange that I could get no nearer then a metre to the produce in the market, whereas in the supermarket not only could I rummage at will but also had to drop my mask to wet my fingers to open the pesky bags they insist we use to weigh them.
Very hygenic , but it’s that or nothing at all. ;-(
I cannot help I’m afraid - I did not see, let alone eat, even one on the Cote d’Azur when I was growing up. (But I can tell you all about Chinese brassicas and blettes, skinny artichokes, cardoons and so on).
Our supermarket has big signs up saying “ if you touch it, you buy it”…
All well and very sensible, Jane, but if you want some big spud for oven cooking and they are buried under a load of little ones, what are you to do?
In ‘normal’ times, touching things that others have handled, door knobs, money, hands etc. was accepted without question.
When I first transferred my custom to the supermarket I wore the bag I was intending to use on my hand to turn the fruit and veg, but I still had to get the bloody thing open first.
How do others open those bags? Have you all got stickier fingers than me? I try and try but still end up removing the mask and licking. I have even tried exhaling heavily through it onto my fingers, to no avail.
Rub them…pinch a bit of the top between your fingers and rub sideways. Or with the really difficult ones you pinch two bits at the top about an inch or so apart and stretch it, and then rub.
Thank you Jane, I’ll try that, but I am sure I have done everything humanly possible already, but I will give it a go. 
