Love them or hate them, they're an essential part of any Christmas dinner.

The best part of Christmas every year is the dinner by far. Never mind all the presents, the tree and any of that other rubbish, Christmas dinner is the one time a year where you can gorge on turkey, ham, stuffing and all the good stuff. One component of a Christmas dinner still remains something of a divisive opinion among people is the Brussel Sprout. The humble vegetable still seems to cause tension between families and friends, as some proclaim their love for the little green bulbs while others can barely stand to look at them never mind taste them. However, for those of you that hate the Brussel sprout, it turns out the reason the taste of the vegetable is so unsavoury is because you're cooking them wrong. According to The Sunday Telegraph, etching a little cross on your sprouts followed by boiling them is the worst way to cook the festive vegetable. Matthew Rawson, chairman of the Brassica Growers Association has revealed that boiling is the worst method of cooking them.

"Boiling them was traditionally the way of doing it, but putting the cross in puts in too much water. "They turn soggy and rubbish. People who do that have ruined the Brussels sprout."

Matthew has advised to stirfry, steam or microwave the vegetable to get the maximum flavour out of those little sprouts.

"People now are learning that it is a very versatile vegetable. The big ones lend themselves well to a stir-fry. "People are steaming them, and there are fancy microwave packs. It is being driven forward by people who are more creative."