I love Brussels sprouts. I almost always order them out, when they are on the menu. I decided it was time to perfect my own preparation of them. I made two recipes. The first was a great success; the second was not.

At my first attempt, I chose this recipe from Martha Stewart. I have made many of her recipes, so she gets my implicit trust. Plus, I didn’t have a lot of fancy ingredients on hand, so the simplicity was appealing.

The sprouts turned out great. I stood at the fridge eating the sprouts out of the bowl cold when I was looking for a snack. This early success might have lulled me into what happened next.

I was looking for a Brussels sprout recipe with balsamic vinegar. I have a delicious aged bottle of balsamic that would be lovely in this context. After perusing several recipes, I settled on this one at Food.com. I was suspicious of the sugar immediately. But I put away my doubt after a quick look at the reviews. Plus, recipes surprise me sometimes. Admittedly, they surprise me infrequently. I gave this a go in spite of my misgivings.

Those little alarm bells that jangled in my mind when I looked at the sugar content in that recipe were spot on. Let’s just say caramel dipped Brussels sprouts isn’t a thing for a very good reason. My mind was saying I was eating a vegetable, but my mouth was saying it was a rum soaked raisin.

What have I learned? I won’t trust reviews on Food.com from this point forward. I don’t know how that recipe got 5 stars. The only explanation I can come up with is that said reviewers will like anything that tastes like candy.