Now that the sweet corn season is nearly over in North America, how about a poll on methods of eating corn on the cob?
(This is an open poll. Your answer will be visible to everyone. If you feel you need privacy on a matter like this, there is something seriously wrong with you.)
Horizontal, left to right
Horizontal, right to left
Horizontal, boustrophedon*
Vertical, one row at a time
Vertical, helically
Random bites here and there
Scrape the kernels off the cob with a knife and eat them with a fork
None of the above, the right way:
I never eat corn on the cob
0voters
*first one way, then back the other.
While we’re at it, feel free to tell us about your favorite methods of preparing corn on the cob. Here’s mine: microwave in the husk for three minutes per ear, then, without removing the husk, cut off the thick end with a big knife and squeeze the other end to push the ear out of the husk at the cut end. (It helps to have oven gloves.) It’s quick and easy, and the biggest advantage is that almost all the corn silk remains behind in the husk.
Horizontal, left to right, like a typewriter. What is this, Soviet Russia??
I schuck ‘em, then cook mine bare, on the top rack of a grill, until they’re done. Then they get a pat or two of butter on the top as they ‘rest’ and cool off to eat.
If you haven’t ever microwaved it per the OP, give it a try. Tastes just like boiling but with zero mess, no pot to wash, much less electricity or gas, and only 3 minutes from start to finish. Unless I’m cooking for a crowd, I’ll never boil corn on the cob again.
I’ve tried a number of cooking methods, but by far the best is sous vide. 183° F for half an hour, with a pat of butter in the bag so it melts and permeates the corn while it cooks.
Cooking: Shuck the ears and cut the ends flat. Slather with butter/margarine and roll tightly in foil. Throw on the barbie, or in the oven/toaster-oven, whatever is being used for the meat.
Left to right, and I’m another fan of the microwave. Wrap the ear, silk and leaves included, in plastic wrap, then nuke for a few minutes. Unwrap and cut off about a half inch of the fat end. Squeeze from the small end and all the leaves and silk come off in a bunch. Tender, juicy and just perfect every single time.
I will go horizontally once taking full bites, direction varies. Once that is done I take one row at a time, prying the kernels out of the cob with my lower teeth, leaving a clean row with no detritus. It’s slower, but I end up with more corn goodness.
I grill corn usually, but boiling produces a very good result if you start with fresh corn.
Just FYI, if you’re wrapping in plastic wrap to keep moisture/steam in, you don’t need to, esp if the silk and leaves are still attached. There’s plenty of moisture trapped in there.
I voted for the first option, left to right, which seems to be the majority, but the reality is that I don’t have corn on the cob very often. When I do have it, I like it liberally buttered and then, since I use unsalted butter, lightly salted. I love sweet corn but usually buy it in frozen form, usually the peaches and cream variety. I’m basically a childlike vegetable hater, but buttered sweet corn is great!
I hated corn on the cob, mainly because I needed a lot of orthodontia before I could eat it properly. In other words, corn on the cob was an ordeal that my mother made me suffer through, not realizing it was simply impossible for me to eat corn on the cob (My incisors were way out of whack; they might as well have come from the Simpsons’ “Big Book of British Smiles”.) When my orthodontist finally got me to the point where I could eat it, I had lost any enthusiasm for it.
After the train tracks were taken off, I took a knife to the cob and sliced off the kernels. “Look, Mom, I’m eating corn! Are you happy now?”
Horizontal left to right. But… The first bite determines the number of rows. Usually it’s three rows at a time, but maybe 2 or 4. Then it HAS to be the same number of rows across the ear. It can get a little tricky at the end because sometimes the rows don’t stay even. I need to determine the right path to make it as even as possible.
I answered, “Scrape the kernels off the cob with a knife and eat them with a fork”, because that’s what I do if I’m making corn for hubby and I. That’s the only way he’ll eat corn on the cob.
If it’s just me, I’ll eat it Horizontal, boustrophedon.
Since it’s usually cut off the cob, I usually cook it in a frying pan with olive oil and/or butter and spices and end up with some sort of modified Mexican Street Corn.
The right way: start at the narrower tip of the cob, because all the sweetest, tenderest small kernels are there. That way if you get too full to finish off the entire cob, at least you’ve eaten up all the best part.
I only cut the kernels off the cob if I’m preparing a corn dish, like corn/tomato/poblano pepper salad or corn chowder.
