Broccoli comes from wild mustard, which flowers in order to reproduce.
In fact, many vegetables come from just that single plant - we've cultivated it in so many ways for so many years, we've got some very distinct varieties:
Seriously?? Wow, a friend had been talking my ear off with brassicacea fact and failed to mention this? Thanks for sharing!
B. oleracea gets all the fame.
B. rapa never gets the respect it should.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica_rapa
Bok Choi
Bomdong
Choy sum
Komatsuna
Mizuna
Napa Cabbage
Rapini
Tatsoi
Turnip
Yellow Sarson
Oil seed Mustard
Wow, TIL that canola oil seed is natural hybridization of B. oleracea (Cabbage) and B. rapa (Chinese Cabbage).
The germans almost got it right with the naming
| English | German | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Cabbage | Kohl | "Cabbage?" |
| Brussel Sprouts | Rosenkohl | "Rose Cabbage" |
| Kolarabi | Kohlrabi | "Rabbi's Cabbage" ^I'm^ ^joking^ |
| Kale | Grünkohl | "Green Cabbage" |
| Broccoli | Brokkoli | "Brother's Cabbage" ^Jk.^ ^They^ ^fucked^ ^up^ ^here^ |
| Cauliflower | Blumenkohl | "Flower Cabbage" |
Brussel sprouts are also called "Kohlsprossen" in some german speaking areas -> cabbage sprouts. Cauliflower is also called "Karfiol" ("Car-fee-ol which i dont have a fucking clue how it came to be.)
From Italian cavolfiore (“cauliflower”), from cavolo (“cabbage”) + fiore (“flower”).
Kale, Kohl, add Cauli all come from the same Latin word caulis, btw.
I once had someone accuse me of being bourgeoisie for eating Brussels sprouts.
That's not why you're bougie
It's because of the light-up sneakers, isn't it?
It's because of your monocle and top hat.
You should've been eating cabbage like a good proletariat /s
I've found that anyone who uses bourgeoisie unironically can and should be ignored
Hmm... that sounds like something a bourgeoisie would say to their bourgeoisie friends.
So what is kohlrabi? Is it good? How do you eat/cook it?
It tastes like broccoli stems. Some are more tender than others (just like with broccoli stems).
I usually slice into little julienned pieces and marinate it in salt and acid for it to wilt into some kind of modified cole slaw.
My parents had some lettuce on their balcony but failed to harvest it in time so it grew taller and taller. They gave it to a friend as a birthday present and nobody could say what weird plant they had brought.
That's called bolting, and it's no longer enjoyable to eat when it's done that.
Eh, depends how much you enjoy intense bitterness and an upset stomach.
I only know this because im a really shit gardener
Same, but it makes the bees happy.
Always a good thing. Bees, hell insects in general are being obliterated by climate change.
That's why some of us try to grow a pollinator garden. I'm not quite there yet because the property I bought was all paved in concrete, but I'm getting there. So many types of bees. It's beautiful to see. And others like butterflies are coming now, too.
This is called "bolting" in gardening terms, when a plant goes to flower or seed.
Not exactly. It is bolting when it starts sending up a flowering stem, the very beginning of flowering. Every broccoli I've ever eaten has bolted, but not many of them have bolted and flowered.
I... don't know enough about broccoli to figure out if this is a meme or not.
I don't know enough about memes to figure out if this is broccoli or not.
And at this point I'm too afraid to ask
It is not, with broccoli and cauliflower you literally eat the buds, or how they are called in English, and they can of course flower.
We call them "florets", which means "small flower"
And butterflies love the flowers! All my broccoli went to flower (bolted) last year!
Does it taste good?
In my opinion, no. It is picked and consumed when the buds are still tight, if the head starts to loosen or the buds begin to open it has a more bitter taste to it.
Typically when plants flower they become more bitter. There are outliers but the general rule holds. Broccoli is better before it flowers fs
Does it taste better when it blooms?
Grew broccoli for the first time this year. The answer is worse, chewier, stringier.
It becomes bitter.
It’s closely related to mustard, and mustard’s distinct flavor is from the seeds. So I’d assume that if you leave it long enough for the blooms to seed, they’d taste similar to mustard. Most plants tend to get bitter after they bloom, because they send all of their nutrients to the flowers. And mustard does tend to be fairly bitter.
Everything is a brassica.
What I get from this: we eat broccoli before it reaches sexual maturation.
So you don't enjoy eating fully grown broccoli, you enjoy eating prepubescent broccoli children.
I'm also realising that this is true of a lot of veg...
So do the flowers smell like a fart too?
If your broccoli smells like a fart then that means you have overcooked it in water.
Try roasting that shit, you will find that broccoli smells and tastes fucking fantastic.
My grandpa always leaves some of the veg he grows to bloom so he can take the seeds to plant in the next year. It's really interesting to watch them develop!
For anyone in NE North America, our native Golden Alexander plant can be eaten in a similar way and tastes quite a bit like broccoli. As a bonus, it’s a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies, so it’s a wonderful addition to the garden!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
