Corn in general

NYNM has something going about Bay Corn, I don't understand what's up there. Could be that weird freaky stuff in Asian food, the midget ears in a can.
But I wanted to talk a little about corn. I just had a couple ears of pretty good corn, which is always available at Latino markets here in LA, and usually for very little. I see it even at the big supermarkets in the summer for 10 cents/ear. I just paid 99 cents for 3 ears.
I usually just use butter, salt, and pepper for corn on the cob, but I thought tonight I'd try sprinkling a little chile powder on there, but I did not like it, it seemed acrid, and killed any sweetness of the corn or the butter. So I wonder if anybody has any bright ideas about flavorings for C on the C. Of course, I'd like any interesting ideas about corn off the cob, too. I don't think it's hard to cut the cooked kernals off, and while I'm not crazy about bell peppers, I love roasted serranos, which are almost free here, and I'm trying to think of some other items which might work well with fresh cut corn. Some type of onion? A little garlic? Or shallots? Hmmm...
When I was a kid, in CT, my Dad grew both white shoe peg type ears, probably the best, sweetest, I've ever seen, and he grew popcorn, too. We ended up with a huge harvest of that, lasted for 2 or 3 years. That was fun. Hard to get those kernels off the cob, though.
Later, in IL, in the summer, we bought fresh ears and cooked them within hours of picking. Also really splendid. I'm sure lots of you have similar tales... Give me some ideas about corn as side dish.
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

I'm a corn on the cob with butter person myself (hold the salt). Try sprinkling a little grated Parmesan cheese on it while it's still hot out of the kettle or grill..

season salt butter and have done the parm its all good but it starts with having good corn.......I use the leftover cobs when I make my stock for chicken corn soup wow thats some good eats so mom quit throwing away them cobs.....she thinks I'm nuts but still asks how I get that taste in my soup......its all in the cob.
Ron

I believe ya Unabashed.. My sister sends me a ham every Christmas from Harringtons in Vt. (I believe).. Either way, it's maple glazed and cob smoked. Never in my life would I have thought of using corn cobs for smoking meat... The flavor rivals hickory, and around my neck of the woods, those are almost fighting words! lol.. So needless to say, I appreciate your input on more uses of the used corn cob there..

Scott, if you want a good laugh, just Google "bay corn". NYNM's post here at roadfood comes up first, or it did before all the new talk about it.

Vick, mmm, that parmesan on corn sounds great! I will try it on my next ear.

Ron and Vick, glad to hear about uses for the cobs. I always hate throwing them away. I think I will freeze the next ones.
Jor

The folklore in our area holds that a stock of corncobs was always kept in the outhouse in the days before indoor plumbing...

Cheers, John

Ha! seafarer john's comment reminds me of the joke corn cobs they used to carry at Stuckey's, with the electric cord attached. They were called hillbilly TP or something like that.
-Scott Lindgren

We enjoy grilled corn. I used to do it in the husks (after soaking), but I thought it was more like steamed that way. Off with the husks.
A little butter, salt & pepper, and directly on the grill. Better.
Now I don't even butter it; if the corn is sweet, I like it best plain.
But I do like a few squeezes of fresh lime juice on it. The citrus really wakes up the flavor & adds a great freshness. Try it.
Ron

In Tennessee we have the peaches and creme sweet corn. I enjoy it raw. When I do not do that I boil it shortly with butter, salt and pepper. It is usually avialble only for a few months like July and early August.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

3 minutes in the nuker in the husk works for me.. Still nice and crunchy, but hot enough to melt the butter...

I am like Sundancer.. I love it raw also.......

Get that fresh picked corn into the water right after picking or it won't be the same. Corn starts losing sweetness as soon as you pick it!

leethebard...who told you corn loses sweetness as soon as it is picked?????

Love corn on the cob and the fresher the better. I soak it in the husks then remove as mush silk as possible ---rewrap the husks and grill or microwave it for 2 minutes; Recently I read that if the corn is not exactly hot off the corn stalk to sprinkle the corn with lime juice after cooking and thats all----or maybe it was buttered then lime juice. I will give a try an see what happens. Can't be a total loss if it's good corn.

quote:

Originally posted by salindgren

NYNM has something going about Bay Corn, I don't understand what's up there. Could be that weird freaky stuff in Asian food, the midget ears in a can.
But I wanted to talk a little about corn. I just had a couple ears of pretty good corn, which is always available at Latino markets here in LA, and usually for very little. I see it even at the big supermarkets in the summer for 10 cents/ear. I just paid 99 cents for 3 ears.
I usually just use butter, salt, and pepper for corn on the cob, but I thought tonight I'd try sprinkling a little chile powder on there, but I did not like it, it seemed acrid, and killed any sweetness of the corn or the butter. So I wonder if anybody has any bright ideas about flavorings for C on the C. Of course, I'd like any interesting ideas about corn off the cob, too. I don't think it's hard to cut the cooked kernals off, and while I'm not crazy about bell peppers, I love roasted serranos, which are almost free here, and I'm trying to think of some other items which might work well with fresh cut corn. Some type of onion? A little garlic? Or shallots? Hmmm...
When I was a kid, in CT, my Dad grew both white shoe peg type ears, probably the best, sweetest, I've ever seen, and he grew popcorn, too. We ended up with a huge harvest of that, lasted for 2 or 3 years. That was fun. Hard to get those kernels off the cob, though.
Later, in IL, in the summer, we bought fresh ears and cooked them within hours of picking. Also really splendid. I'm sure lots of you have similar tales... Give me some ideas about corn as side dish.
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

Chili powder on corn doesnt work too well on corn because there is too many ingredients in it, but try this. Get some dried ancho chiles at the same Latino store and grind them up in a coffee grinder with the seeds and stems removed. It also wont hurt if you toast them in a cast iron skillet until they start to blister before grinding then mix this with melted butter.

I also like to finish ears of corn on the BBQ grill with some sweet BBQ sauce until it starts to burn it will become candied a little on the outside.

For canned I like to drain corn as much as possible then put it in a bowl add a little sugar 3/4 tsp then add some vegatable oil about a tablespoon and Olive oil then dump it into a hot cast iron skillet and cook it until it starts popping and slightly burnt on the outside then add some smoked papprika and cook it a little longer and serve it as is or add it to rice.

Bay corn I prefer raw and eating it naked in the garden it came out of lol...Russ

I've been attacked on this board before for saying this, but here goes: one of the best ways to prepare it is to wrap it in plastic wrap, poke a few holes in it, then nuke it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. It really concentrates the flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by myterry2

leethebard...who told you corn loses sweetness as soon as it is picked?????

I am not the person you ask but google it and you will find out yourself that it is well known that corn starts losing its sweetness as soon as it is picked.

It is best picked and utilized.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Being from major corn territory, Leethebard is correct.As soon as corn is picked, it starts losing its sweetness.I always buy my corn right from a farm in the summer as I am able-it is sooooooo different from what sits in the store.While the corn in the store is still good, the difference is amazing!!

Not attacking anyone, but I wouldn't let corn on the cob touch a microwave. So many better things to do.

I agree with Annpeeples about corn loosing sweetness after picking. I believe the same is true about most any vegetable or fruit. That's probably why the oranges in CT are a shadow of the citrus available in FL. Tomatoes too.

I've done the corn in the microwave thing and it is very good. Try it.

Anyone living in areas where corn is gwown and sold at farmstands knows that the enzymes in corn immediately begin to convert the sugars into starch when the corn is picked from the stalk. The rule is; have the water boiling before you pick the corn.

quote:

Originally posted by Greymo

Anyone living in areas where corn is gwown and sold at farmstands that the enzymes in corn immediately begin to convert the sugars into starch when the corn is picked from the stalk. The rule is; have the water boiling before you pick the corn.

. . . and we used to do exactly that every summer. The best times we had with corn on the cob was at our in-laws on a farm in southwestern Minnesota. My brother-in-law contracted and planted the best premium Green Giant sweet corn and the field was right next to the house. We picked, shucked and dumped the ears immediately into the boiling water. The best corn there was + immediacy produced a taste you'll never know. This Hoosier just recently transplanted to Minnesota shocked the natives by consuming 12 ears at one meal. Alas, that was over 30 years ago.

Since the topic is corn in general, I must say although I love corn, I pretty much avoid it now.

If I know and trust the source such as a local farm, that is a different matter. I load up on it then. My concern is corn is not really corn anymore as most of it now is genetically modified corn, thanks to greedy corporations and an FDA not worthy of the name. I prefer Mother Nature's corn rather than the mothers at Monsanto's corn.

If eating real corn, I am basically a butter, salt and pepper man. For variety, sometimes I use cayenne pepper because I like it. I do agree chili powder is too complex and I avoid that. Bacon fat instead of butter is an experiment I have tried more than once especially when camping. Smoked sea salt instead of regular salt is interesting also.

I suggest using herbs and spices you like and experimenting. Sooner or later you will come up with a really satisfying result.

I will agree about the speed of regular corn converting sugars to starches...But with the Super-Sweet varieties you do have a reasonable amount of time between picking and cooking...no need to speed home from the farm stand.

My favorite way to eat corn on the cob is raw- fresh from the field. Next would be the grilled ears that are sold by the Boy Scouts at the Harvest Homecoming Festival in New Albany, IN each September They wrap several napkins around the long "handle" at the bottom of the ear, dip the grilled ear in a pot of melted butter and hand it to you pointing at a salt shaker if you want it. The ears are Huge. Messy but delicious!

I love Corn Pudding/ Creamed Corn. Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro does it fine, as does Claudia Snders Dinner House (both in Kentucky) The Dillard House in GA does a fine job with it also.

To sum up...I love Corn. I can't think of too many ways to serve it that I do not enjoy!

The new hybrid corn varieties hold their sweetness much longer than the old ones; they will retain almost all their flavor for several days. I got that directly from a corn farmer. I verified it by holding in the crisper for 3 days half a dozen of the ears I bought from him, then cooking; they were excellent.

I was taught that the best way to eat corn was to go out into the field and build a fire next to a ripe corn stalk, and boil a pot of water; when it is boiling, you strip the ear and bend the stalk into the water.

My Mom taught me this way to cook corn: put the ears in the pot with enough water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes, then turn off. When the boiling subsides, the corn is done. It is never undercooked this way, and never overcooked.

I eat my corn with nothing on it; no butter, no pepper, no salt.

Ah, well, it's always nice to see a lot of responses like these, and I appreciate the earnest suggestions. I don't know what to say about the genetically modified issue... I mean, God did not create cows, we did. In one way or another, a lot of our food is the result of human goofing around. I have read too many times about corn losing its sweetness right after picking to not believe that.
Now, on the cooking question, I'm sure that any number of methods can be perfected. Even the microwave. But I kind of go along with two basically similar ideas I've read about in the last few years. Both involve a little work with removing the silk, but not the husk, then either tying up the ear with string or something, if boiling, or soaking for a while and wrapping in aluminum foil if grilling. The story is that the husk imparts a little something you lose without it, and I think it's true. What I really don't like at cookouts is bare ears just burnt up, blackened, over charcoal, you know? I don't understand people who think that's good. But other questions abound. What happens if you get fresh ears and freeze them? I asked already about whether frozen corn (or other veggies) are better or worse, or any different from canned...
It's interesting that even though I have heard that the French think corn is only fit for feeding pigs, here in the Americas, it's well loved. I'll bet I'm seeing responses here from New England to San Diego, Seattle to Miami, all over. A lot of Americans like corn. Mexicans, too.
On flavorings: Yeah, I will keep playing with different powdered chiles, for the on the cob version, but I guess the lazy man's method is just grated parmesan, which I also like on popcorn. In corn off the cob, I know without even doing it yet that I'll be happy with roasted serranos. I am mad for those, they go with so many things. But there must be other interesting junk you can toss into a can of corn... Maybe not garlic, but perhaps cooked shallots, how about a little cilantro? Or even toasted pine nuts? I think the pine nuts might compliment the corn. Throw me more ideas.
-Scott Lindgren

Did Google it and got these right on top:
For the best quality, sweet corn should be
harvested in the milk stage when the juice
inside the kernels is white and sweet. If
harvested earlier, the corn lacks flavor, and
if picked later, it is tough and starchy.
After picking, sweet corn loses quality
because the sugar converts to starch.
Warm temperatures speed this conversion.
To provide the best possible quality, local
growers pick sweet corn every day, in the
early morning when temperatures are cool.


from a goverment site:

http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/sweetcorn.pdf

AND

For the best tasting results, use only freshly picked corn. Pick no more than you'll be able to can or freeze within two to three hours. Because corn loses its flavor and its sweetness quickly, you have to work fast during processing.

from "NGA" National Gardening Association's site:

http://www.garden.org/foodguide/browse/veggie/corn_harvesting/796