Give Corn On The Cob Better Flavor With A Sprinkle Of This Iconic Seasoning

Corn on the cob can seem like a foodstuff with little room for improvement — literally. The famed Mexican elote (aka street corn) notwithstanding, it can be tricky to get certain ingredients to successfully cling to those tightly packed kernels. But that's where clever additions like umami-packed, corn-enhancing miso butter, simple citrus spritzes, and finely powdered spices come in, since they can really mingle amid those edible seeds bursting with juicy freshness. In the latter category, Old Bay is such an obvious flavor booster that you might be surprised you've never shaken it onto your corn before.

Consider the seafood boil. An excellent seafood boil will include shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, crayfish, or any combination thereof, plus corn and, often enough, Old Bay. That's as good a recommendation as any for marrying corn and the legendary seasoning outside of the pot, too. Old Bay's known ingredients — celery salt, paprika, mustard seed, and red and black pepper — also pair beautifully with corn's vegetal sweetness. The same goes for the spice's suspected secret ingredients, like the ubiquitous bay leaf. But there is one minor challenge: You're still trying to combine a dry seasoning with the corn (which will most likely be barely moist at best), so you'll need to put in the tiniest bit of effort to get them to adhere.

Straight out of a pot of boiling water or off the grill, corn on the cob will still have some surface moisture. You could theoretically season it immediately to make the most of that stickiness. But, not only is that not always realistic, it's not the most flavorful way to add Old Bay to the corn.

Butter is the obvious binder in this case. It's already a top corn go-to thanks to its own creamy near-sweetness, and it will hold the Old Bay's light dust nicely. Just remember that celery salt, one of Old Bay's ingredients, is, well, salty. So, depending on your salinity tolerance, you may want to reach for an unsalted stick to coat your corn before you sprinkle on the seasoning. You can also brush on some extra virgin olive oil for a lighter, more subtle flavor. On the other hand, mayo will work the same way but with a grabbier quality, should you want to roll on even more robust ingredients like leafy green herbs. A bit of dill and maybe some lemon zest will begin to so closely approximate a seafood feast you may not even miss the actual swimmers.