Fresh corn on the cob doesn’t take much cooking at all. Some people insist that the only way to eat it is to get it within hours of being picked and boil it for two or three minutes. These same people will put the water on the stove before heading out to the farmers market or roadside stand to get the corn, so they won’t waste a second after shucking it.
These people are crazy.
I’ve kept corn in the fridge for two or three days before cooking it and I can’t tell you the difference. Maybe I have an unrefined palate. I think it’s more likely that preparing it well is more important than whether you eat it the first day or the third.[1]
So here are my three tips for perfect grilled corn on the cob. Actually, one tip for grilled corn on the cob, and the other two you can use no matter how you cook it.
Start with corn that is fresh enough that the silk — that’s the clump of hairlike strands sticking out the end — is still slightly sticky. Peel off the dried-up outer layer of husk, but leave at least one whole layer of leaves on the cob.
Snap the stem off at about two or three inches, and wrap each ear in a piece of foil that is about two inches longer on each end.
Submerge the wrapped corn in water for about an hour. I used my roasting pan because it was big enough, and I hadn’t put it away in the basement yet after using it for canning the pickles.
After an hour of soaking, put the corn on the grill close over extremely hot coals …
… or, if the grill is full of hamburgers already, on the bottom rack of your oven set to 350°.
Turn them over once after 10-15 minutes. They are pretty insensitive to cooking time, so don’t stress too much about the exact minutes. Oh, and lean back when you open the stove. There will be a huge blast of steam when you do. If you’re doing it in the stove, that is.
After another 10 minutes pull them out very carefully. These things are extremely hot little steam bombs. If you’re doing a bunch, you can stack them in a cooler and they’ll stay hot for several hours.
Open the foil very carefully — steam bombs, remember? — and peel the remaining layers of husk and silk back. Presto, instant handle, without using those little molded-plastic spear thingies. (That’s the second tip.)
Now this third tip is my all-time favorite way to butter corn. Get the crust from the bread. Since no one ever eats the crust, you should have one on top of the loaf in your breadbox. Throw a big slab of butter on it.
Now run that hot corn back and forth on the butter until it’s dripping with buttery goodness.
Do this with two or three ears of corn and you’ll be left with a melted-butter-soaked hunk of bread that the kids will absolutely fight over. Use it as a bribe to get them to clear the table. While they’re dumping the plates in the kitchen, eat the bread yourself. Laugh at their naiveté.
[1] Tomatoes are completely different. Refrigerating them noticeably reduces the flavor. Corn fiends are extremists. Tomato fiends are simply observant.
6 Comments
This just makes me think of all the summer family cookouts grilling corn. It would come straight from the Hilltop stand, and get soaked in a wheelbarrow lined with a trashbag and filled with water. Eventually, they’d get tossed on the grill as is, no foil. We’d get a big jar, put a stick or two of butter in the bottom and pour in boiling water. When the butter melts, it will be at the top of the jar. Just dip the corn in, and let the excess drip off. Perfectly buttered corn… okay, now I’m hungry.
Two things:
1)I’ve read about freaks who will set up little propane stoves in their gardens so they can cook corn (and asparagus) AS SOON AS they cut it from the stalk. That’s just weird. And unnecessary, since most of the new supersweet hybrids don’t convert their sugars to starch as fast as the old varieties.
2)Your bread trick brought me right back to my childhood. This was my mother’s trick, too. We used Wonderbread. Ah, the innocent and fiber-free 80s . . .
Jenn, as I was reading “boiling water” I thought, “What the hell is she doing?” Then … it floats! Oh, that is so cool.
Kristin, I forgot to mention why people are so crazy about eating it quick, thanks for the reminder. Truthfully I’ve had some white corn that was so sweet it didn’t have any noticeable corn flavor. Just sweetness. So when people talk about “extra sweet” that’s not really a bonus for me. I like corn flavored corn, not candy.
Drew,
Just down the road is our roadside market. And its ‘mater and corn time!!!!!!
I am not picking on your method. But, if you don’t have the grill fired up here’s a method we found for the absolute best corn on the cob.
It’s amazing where you find some recipes:
Oven-Roasted Corn
(The Nero Wolfe Method)
Murder is Corny by Rex Stout
Wolfe: It must be nearly mature, but not quite, and it must be picked not more than three hours before it reaches me. Do you eat sweet corn?
Cramer: Yes. You’re stalling.
Wolfe: No. Who cooks it?
Cramer: My wife. I haven’t got a Fritz.
Wolfe: Does she cook it in water?
Cramer: Sure. Is yours cooked in beer?
Wolfe: No. Millions of American women, and some men, commit that outrage every summer day. They are turning a superb treat into mere provender. Shucked and boiled in water, sweet corn is edible and nutritious; roasted in husk in the hottest possible oven for forty minutes, shucked at the table, and buttered and salted, nothing else, it is ambrosia. No chef’s ingenuity and imagination have ever created a finer dish. American women should themselves be boiled in water
Frank, that quote is awesome!
Oh no … I just went to Google and Wikipedia to run down the reference. I’ve got enough in my Netflix queue to last me for two years and now I want to add two seasons of Nero Wolfe. Arrgg!
i never knew that bread trick wow thnx