So you did know that some people put butter on corn after all.
What a strange comment.
Yes it is. It’s not universal, fair enough, but “breaking bread” is an idiom meaning “sharing a meal” for a reason. Similarly “bread and butter” as a phrase meaning “normal and everyday, routine, nothing special”. “Give us this day our daily bread”?
Not until recently, and even then only my wife’s family and nobody else.
So mostly no.
I wasn’t thinking of that thread (didn’t remember it at all) but, man, that is really odd to me. I mean, corn on the cob and butter is just standard for Americans, as I’ve always known.
I find the using a piece of bread to butter corn to be something I’d expect from cousin Eddie in the vacation movies. I’m a knife type and I’m just glad I’m an adult and have real butter in my apartment and not that awful margarine crap my family had growing up.
At my grandparents (both sets) there was always a pre-sliced loaf of bread in progress and room temperature butter. It may not have been on the dining table, but it would easily find its way there if there was corn on the table. A buttered slice of bread is a quick and easy snack that can be carried one handed and doesn’t need utensils.
My sister-in-law has the same, just that the bread is hidden away from the dog, who will take it off the counter and eat it.
Of course, if it’s an Italian household, it will be olive oil, and not butter. And the bread isn’t pre-sliced. But then they probably don’t eat corn while it’s still on the cob. But there will be bread. A Swiss household will have bread (Zopf) and butter.
Over the years, I’ve tried every method named here. I even had a buttering device like this one, similar to Brother Cadfael’s but with a handle. It looks like a brilliant idea, but it actually takes forever to work. The heat has to rise through the little holes to make the butter melt onto the corn. Or else you have to press hard enough to force the solid butter through, which is how I broke the handle. :sigh:
My preference is to put a mug of butter into the microwave and dip a pastry brush into it. This way everyone at the table can get their corn perfectly buttered quickly, and I’m not left politely waiting for them while my cob gets cold. If there’s a large enough gathering I’ll do one with herbs and one with just salt and pepper in it.
The mayonnaise trick I have only ever used when grilling. We call it “Mexican” corn but I’m not sure whether it’s an authentic recipe. Mix mayo with cumin, garlic salt, grated jack cheese (or cotija if you can find it), lime zest and crushed red pepper seeds (or smoked paprika for the capsaicin challenged). It’s a very convenient way to get the seasonings to stick to the corn cob, and the mayo browns beautifully.
Yeah I get you. And once my wife told me about it, the light bulb went on and it does make sense. I mean, popcorn? Always with butter and salt.
Of the girlfriends I’ve had and the many times I’d been to her family’s houses for dinner, or friends’ houses, I’d never encountered it! And most of my friends (and girlfriends) are true-blue American families and not immigrants who immigrated here like my family did.
Just one of those things, I guess.
I think it is authentic. See here, in CS: Mexican Corn: Yummy! (Elotes, Esquites — Mexican Street Food)
And I like your idea of zapping the butter in a microwave and brushing it on.
I remember my high school girlfriend, who is a very intelligent and cultured person, at my senior prom turned to me during dessert service and asked “what is this?” I looked down at the plate. “Um…apple pie.” “Huh, I’ve never had apple pie before.”
And she was born and raised here in the US, as were her parents. This just seemed so odd to me, as her mother made otherwise very typical American type desserts and some atypical ones (like sugar cookies made from Jay’s or maybe Vitner’s potato chips. Much better than you might expect, but they swore never to tell dad what was in them.)
Interesting!
As a kid, we always ate apples cored, sliced, then drizzled with a bit of honey. As an adult, most people I mention it to have never had nor heard of it, try it, and are immediately hooked.
As a kid we had corn holders and we buttered the corn with one of those butter-stick-holders designed to butter your corn. But that’s actually a nuisance, and we moved to just twirling the corn on a stick of butter.
As an adult, I find I prefer good sweetcorn without butter, though. My husband butters his, but I don’t actually recall his method.
We don’t usually serve bread and butter at meals, either, unless that happens to be the starch of the evening. (so, not when we have corn!) But bread is cheap, so if you want to use it to butter corn, I suppose it’s simple enough to make that happen.
At big picniks, someone often sets out a large pot of hot water with a quarter-inch of melted butter floating atop. Just hold the cob, and dip your corn for a perfectly buttered ear – should you want butter.
as soon as you start talking multiple butter types, you win.
but just butter, one person doing the buttering and putting the cobs on a plate(s) . . … 7 cobs would be done to your 2. wouldn’t even be close
I have a set of trays the size of the corncob. I put butter in them and then spin the cob, as you do with the bread, but they’re reusable.