One Good Thing: The corn issue

Awwww shuck!

Dear Readers: This issue of One Good Thing is devoted to my favorite end-of-summer topic: CORN.

{photo illustration by Amy}

Before I jump in, here is a reminder that I have paused the subscription paywall for the month of August. This means that for all readers who would like to continue to enjoy this sparkling “One Good Thing” content, you should consider purchasing a subscription — unless you’ve already earned my undying gratitude by putting your money where my mouth is.

Know that if you do opt for a paid subscription, my next topics in the hopper include:

Amy: the Musical

and

Smarter Than Oprah

And now — let’s unshuck some corn.

Last week I was at our local farm stand, visiting with farmer-sisters Kim and Karen while picking up my daily supply of sweet corn. I like everything about Fall Creek Farm, but especially their home-grown corn, which Kim hauls into their shop straight from the field in a giant burlap sack. You know the crop is newly picked because, well, you can see Kim picking it. They grow their field of sweet corn just behind the shop.

Sometimes the ears are still warm from the sun.

As I picked out my six ears of bi-colored “butter and sugar” corn, a conversation sprang up regarding the best way to cook my favorite vegetable.

(And yes … I started the conversation.)

Another customer weighed in. She’s a wrap-it-in-tin-foil and put it in the oven person.

“Hmmm, no,” I thought.

Grower Karen confessed that she is a stick-it-in-the-microwave person. All farmers are microwavers during the busy high harvesting season, because they simply don’t have time to stand around waiting for a pot to boil.

I asked Karen how long she microwaves her ear of corn for, but it turns out that this is a delicate business, dependent on the variety of corn, size of the kernels, voltage of the microwave, and how many extra minutes Karen has to devote to the process before she needs to get back to the fields.

She did say that if you zap it for just a few seconds too long, “it goes to mush.”

My sister Rachel swears by coating a cob in olive oil, adding salt and pepper and garlic, and then sticking it in the oven for an indeterminate amount of time — a half-hour or so.

This seems like a lot of bother, but I will say this: it’s tasty.

Our cousin Catherine and my sister Anne recently wrestled with trendy “corn ribs.” We’d eaten them at a restaurant and LOVED them.

Succumbing to our curiosity about this delicacy, Catherine tried to make them, and the next day she shared some photos of the process, which involves cutting cobs into fourths — using a VERY SHARP KNIFE before coating them with oil and spices and roasting them in the oven.

CORN RIBS!

[photo by Catherine]

The baking process makes the kernels expand and the pieces of cob contract, curling them into rib-shaped finger food.

After seasoning and baking, these pieces of corn turn into this:

Nom nom … Dippin’ sauce!

I will NEVER make corn ribs, but only because I have poor knife skills. During the cutting process, I’d have to have an ambulance standing by. I will happily eat this if you make it, however.

For a good recipe on how to make your own corn ribs …

CLICK HERE

{The above recipe is from a really nice Australian cooking blog, RecipeTinEats, created by a cook named Nagi.}

I then put the corn question to my text-chain of friends from high school.

Kim boils the cobs for four minutes in a rolling boil and then immediately removes the cobs from the pot.

Gretchen uses two inches of water and more or less steams her cobs in a covered pot.

Cynthia soaks the cobs (husks on) and then grills them (husks on) on the outdoor grill.

It turns out that every corn-lover clings to her favorite technique, which makes me think that I should start a corn-cooking competition show, called:

CORN WARS!

My own technique, and the corn field I will die upon, is simple, no-fail, and old-fashioned — like everything I do.

AMYCORN:

Shuck corn.

Place corn in pot of room temperature water high enough to cover the ears (the corn’s ears, not your ears — smarty).

Cook on high until water starts to boil.

Turn off stove immediately and then — let the corn sit in its warm bath until you’re ready to eat it. Go ahead! Have a drink!

Lately I’ve been cutting my corn off the cob and combining it with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. This time of year, all of these vegetables are extremely sweet — as if this time basking in the autumn sun has turned veg into candy.

HOWEVER: if you do decide to consume your corn on-the-cob, it MUST be eaten “typewriter” style.

This is non-negotiable.

It turns out that I’m not the only person who has established very specific parameters for how to consume corn.

My friend Gretchen texted this:

We texted back and forth about this technique, but I was never able to make sense of it, except that the sinful concept of “rebuttering” (buttering where you’ve already buttered) seems to be the central problem needing to be solved by the line of pepper.

[Illustration by Amy]

August is slipping away on a Scottish weather front of cool, dank and sodden skies. But September is often warm and lovely around here, and as long as my local corn suppliers have any ears left to give … I’ll be here to eat them.

I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend completely free from labor — cooking (and eating) corn to your heart’s content.

Love,

Amy

PS: As always, if you’ve made it to the end of this week’s newsletter, please do shoot me a “heart” and by all means — share your own corn cooking (and eating) technique!