Eating Corn On The Cob--What's Your Style???

Question

You know you have one... Devil-may-care destruction? Pop the kernels for the sweetness and leave the skins? Every single one cleanly extracted? Do your lower or upper centrals do the work? Typewriter style or logroller?

Anything beyond butter, salt and pepper? Picks or barehanded? Boats or plates? Stop when you're full, or finish the ear? Is silk Kryptonite? Do you snap off the stems or use 'em as a handle? What about the tip? Boil, steam or roast? Cooked "en husk" or barenaked? Ever sneak a little re-butter? Acceptable cold as leftovers? Dipped in chocolate?

Whose partial ears would you finish off?? Toothpick at the table, or furtive flossing?

Tell the truth. Let your Corn Freak Flag fly.

Answer

Husk and nuke for 7 minutes in a steamer bag. Snap the stems - the spouse needs picks, and snapping is easier. A stray silk is not a problem.

S&P, with an occasional sprinkling of cayenne or Hatch powder.

I eat his leftovers for lunch the next day. Always a little extra butter. 

We have learned over the years to nuke a couple of tablespoons of butter and use a basting brush to apply to the hot corn. Way easier than any other method.

We cook an extra, to cut kernels and freeze. When I cut 'em, I go back and eat off the leftover. Writing that, it sounds gross. But it's good. 

Quietly retire from the table and floss, if necessary. 

We are lucky to have a long corn season. We've returned from vacation mid-October, to still find good corn at our farmers market. 

Geez, I love fresh corn.

Answer

I like them steamed and plain, I eat about 3 rows at a time beginning from the top of the ear to the stem side.

Answer

Sadly due to veneers on my front teeth I now have to cut the corn off the cob before eating (/silent cry). Before I do I liberally apply salt, pepper and butter.

Answer

Boiled, trimmed at the ends and eaten with vintage corn holders. 1 cob if a side dish, 3 for a full meal. 1 extra in both cases for hungry hubby.

Typewriter-style, with a piece of butter melting on the plate to run it through. Tons of salt, and several generous shakes of Frank's hot sauce. Toothpicking in front of the TV later.

Answer

Cooked in the microwave for three minutes, then the end cut off, and squeezed out of the husk. Insert zyliss corn holders. Add a pat of butter for every three rows, and salt. Then typewriter style from right to left! Add more butter, and continue.

Answer

years ago, this happened to the corn cobs :)
boiled quickly, eaten absolutely plain.
i do the logroller. once through and then go back to see what i missed.DH will not eat straight from the cob and strips his kernels with a fork.
am not crazy about grilled (maybe we are doing it wrong, but it seems chewy in a not-good way)

Answer

Steamed...husked if on the stovetop or microwaved in the husk, just til warm. End broken off if necessary to fit in the stockpot or mw. It's become so sweet that butter is no longer necessary, just salt. Left to right, down the cob with a little left on the tip.
Leftover corn? As elusive as leftover wine and unicorns.

Answer

My style, and love for corn on the cob, is almost pornographic. Steamed or boiled, butter, salt, and a little pepper. There's no such thing as "full" with COTC. My foolish brother cuts the kernels off his, so I gnaw on the cob. I will happily finish off my husband's. It's a cruel, cruel twist of fate that made me severely allergic to corn husks, meaning I have to handle them in the grocery with plastic bags on my hands unless there's a helpful employee nearby. My husband has to shuck it for me. 

Anyone do it Heckle and Jeckle style?

Answer

One row at a time. Results in an enviably neat husk.

Answer

Lately it been Mexican Street Corn style. Pulling back the husk and grilling it - brush on Mayo blended with New Mexican or Guajillo chili powder - roll in grated Cotija cheese and squirt with lime .... Not a bad way to go.

Answer

Husk and then wrap in foil with a bit of butter and smoked sea salt. I then throw packets on the grill.

Answer

Soak the ears with the husks on then roast in the BBQ grill.
Peel off the husks and brush/slather with chili lime butter. Douse with salt.
Eat left to right typewriter style.
Clean all kernels from cob.
Roll denuded cob in plate to soak up butter sauce. Suck all of the sauce off cob. 
Bite off small chunks of cob to squeeze out the center sweetness.
Toss the remains in the compost heap.
Thanks for letting me share.

Answer

Grilled, with the husk on. Eaten with a little butter and salt (sometimes, without anything added), typewriter style.

I also like to grill it, add some lime/chili butter and put it back on the grill for a few minutes, but usually I just grill it without anything fancy or extra.

Answer

When I just want to enjoy the corn and am less concerned about health, I cut the raw corn off the cob and sauté it briefly in butter. I drain the butter and add some fresh butter to the corn in the pan with salt and pepper. You can also deglaze with something, a little lobster stock being my personal favorite.

I've heard David Chang does something similar, but uses bacon. I may have to try that.

Answer

Husk, wash, drizzle with olive oil, grill for a couple of mins. for char and heat and then dig in with my teeth in rounded groupings, meaning whatever my teeth can grab in a single bite. No real method of eating but I do need floss afterwards. I think butter overwhelms and too much water near a fresh corn on the cob dilutes the flavor.

Less is more :)

Answer

I like very quickly heated in boiling water for sweet white corn. For other corn I have a modified take on street corn. I take mayonnaise, sriracha, and lime mixed together and spread it all over the ears which are then tossed on a hot grill, turned to ensure charring on all sides. Fingers only. No holders. Rings gnawed, not rows. Mmmmm

Answer

No pattern of eating, and absolutely no seasoning. If it's not sweet enough to be eaten plain, it's not good corn. I do want to try the Mexican street corn, however.

Answer

Messy

Eating corn on the cob, like eating crab or lobster in the shell, is something to be done with social intimates.

Answer

Prefer roasted, but boiled will do. I eat it typewriter style (do the young'uns even know what a typewriter is?), after rubbing it with half a lime.

Answer

taiwanese night market style...

all you need is soy paste (like soy sauce but thick like a paste), taiwanese sweet chili sauce (sort of thick, and sweet / spicy) and garlic. mix it all together and you have your marinade.

now, shuck the corn and throw it on the grill over medium heat. over 10 - 15 min it will start to char. now, start lathering the marinade on the corn. lather, let it cook dry, lather, dry. do it a few times.

just as the corn starts charring evenly and some of the kernels start to get a bit dessicated looking, you're done.

Answer

Raw, boiled, roasted in the oven, microwaved, grilled over charcoal. Any which way with local corn.

Eat it plain, with S&P, buttered, with hot sauce, with fermented tofu (only one particular brand due to texture: 黄日香). Since fermented tofu is what I call Chinese cheese, by extension I imagine smearing gooey cheese over it would be good, too. The funkier the better. Need to try this this season.

Answer

Fast & furious. Nuked in the innermost husks, then slathered in butter and showered in sea salt. No special technique. Next ear, plz.

Answer

Funny, I was contemplating starting this very thread the other day. My sister was over for dinner and she pointed out how weird I was. Apparently I ate half typewriter style, half logroller. (I agree with KarlS that CoC should only be eaten with social intimates, but apparently sis & I haven't dined on CoC lately).

Before cooking, I take my corn-buttering-gadget out of the fridge to soften a little. Husk the corn and put on the water. Remove from heat when water starts to boil. Butter, salt and pepper liberally and then commence typing/rolling, holding ears with bare hands.

Leftovers are remove from cob and used for succotash the next day.

Flossing is always done in private.

And corn silk is like the pine needles of the Christmas tree--just when you think you've gotten them all, you discover one in some hidden crevice of the house.

Answer

Cooked (any style), lightly buttered.
I'll pick up and start at the pointy end and use the "log roller" technique before moving towards the stem.

I just can't do the typewriter. It just seems too difficult to eat from tip to stem without rolling. The intact kernels above and below the lips just get in the way. :-)

Answer

Cook it any which way - they're all good.

To eat?
1. Very carefully run a sharp knife down each row, splitting each kernel in half (so slice at the "top" of the kernels, not between the rows).
2. Eat two or three rows at a time, right to left.

Floss/pick after (not at the table!)

Answer

Oh, btw, for cooking several or a lot of (non-grilled/roasted) cobs, steaming is so much faster than boiling.

Answer

I've put a squeeze of lime and a squirt of hot sauce on my corn ever since Bill Kirchen, the Telemaster King o' Dieselbilly turned me on to that at a farmers market he was playing at.

Answer

Last night we tried a squeeze of lime on grilled c-o-cob and it was outstanding. Thanks for the tip!

Answer

Typewriter style - then scrape the cob with the back of a butter knife to get all the creamy goodness left behind.

Favorite method - lightly steamed 'en husk'. Then lite char on grill (after pulling husk and silk back but leaving attached as a handle), basted with melted butter, fresh minced garlic and pinch of cayenne - sprinkled lightly with grated parm for serving.

Actually though - I just love corn, let me count the ways - corn on the cob, corn off the cob, creamed corn, scalloped corn, corn chowder, corn fritters, corn relish, white corn, yellow corn, popcorn, corn cakes, corn likker, corn bread, corn in Brunswick stew, corn pudding, corn and mater salad, stone ground corn (grits), whew, guess that's about it.

But I don't like corn in my gas tank. :)

Answer

My favorite way is raw when the corn is really good, i'll add it to a salad or make a black bean/corn/pico de gallo dish. Then i save the cobs for soup. 

Otherwise just barely steamed in the husk, enough to warm through, with plenty of kosher salt or maldon if its around, maybe a squeeze of lime. 

For friends and family i make the mexican street corn yet skip the cotija (i think it can mute the flavor of good corn) and do chopped cilantro sprinkled ontop. Leaving the stem end on as a handle.

Answer

Typically I'll do the classic butter/salt/pepper, but sometimes I'll make a nice blue cheese butter and put that on my corn. It's delicious. I also use that mix to make blue cheese mashed potatoes.
I just do a 50/50 blend of butter and Cambozola Black label blue, let them get soft and mix them well.

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Eating Corn On The Cob--What's Your Style???

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