The Simplest Sweet Corn Recipe
Enjoy this summertime treat without cooking.
Even though corn is good, when eaten frozen or even canned, there is nothing better than fresh sweet corn in the summertime.
Corn plants don’t like to be transplanted, so there isn’t an easy way for farmers to get a head start. They have to wait until the ground is warm enough in your region.
Corn will taste the best right after harvest because the sugar transforms into starch after cutting the ears from the stalk. Eating corn grown locally will always taste better.
Keep the husks on your corn.
I cringe when I see the piles of husks at the farmers market, not just because of the poor farmer who now has to clean up the mess, but because the person who made the mess is taking home a substandard product. And if they don’t cook it that day, they are sacrificing the quality of the food.
I know that it sucks to come home and peel back the husks and find a splattering of miss-shaped kernels on the cob. But with a small amount of awareness when you select the ears, feeling each one, you can tell without opening it if the ear has full rows of niblets. If you must look, take a slight peek, leaving the husk on.
Preparation
Whole corn on the cob is a convenient method for home cooks. Peel the husks off and remove the silky strings. If you don’t remove all of the strings entirely, the remaining ones will come off when cooking.
I have spoiled my family by cutting the kernels off the ear. The cutting isn’t hard to do, but it makes a mess until you master your knife’s speed as you slice down the cob and the angle to hold the ear.
Slice at a slower speed and hold the ear of corn so that it leans a degree or two toward your knife-hand. This angle encourages the kernels to fall downward. If you’re right-handed hold the ear at the top with your left hand, the bottom of the ear will touch the cutting board and then slice from top to bottom as slow as you can go.
Once you remove the kernels from the ear, you can heat them gently in a pan with water or butter. Or my favorite is to add them to a salad for a crisp burst of sweetness.
Boiled Corn on the Cob
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove the husks and silks from the cob. Cut the ears into smaller portions, if desired. Add the ears to the boiling water and cook for 3–5 minutes. Remove the ears from the water and serve with salt, pepper, and butter.
Microwaving
You can microwave whole ears of corn for 2–3 minutes for one ear. After cooking, let cool for 3–4 minutes, remove the husks and silks and eat.
Eating Corn Raw
The skin of each kernel of corn is made of cellulose. Cooking corn doesn’t change the digestibility of the cellulose. Like in grass, corn’s biological ancestor, humans can’t digest cellulose, even after cooking. Our digestive systems just get to enjoy the added fiber from the shell that carries the sweet interior.
I love the crisp texture of raw corn and make this salad over and over again through the summer months. It doesn’t need cooking and can be made ahead of time.
Tomato-Corn Salad
- 2–3 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 2–3 green onions, sliced or a 1/4 cup of diced red, white or yellow onion
- 2–3 sweet and/or hot peppers, finely diced
- 3–4 tablespoons basil or cilantro, coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients and let sit for 15–20 minutes before serving, if possible.
Grilling Corn
I have had trouble grilling corn. It seems that I either don’t cook the corn enough and don’t get enough grill flavor to bother with cooking it this way, or I end up with charred, dry kernels that don’t enhance the corn enough to bother with cooking it this way.
I have taken the easy road, gravitating to eating it raw in salads and, at least temporarily, abandoned mastering the technique of grilling corn.
The Easiest Way to Store Corn
When I buy corn, I buy enough for just one meal. But if you grow your own, corn has the problem of it all coming ripe at the same time. Because you need to grow corn in blocks for good pollination, you will have more than you can eat all at once.
Fortunately, corn holds up well to freezing and canning.
Here are the directions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation
Genetically Modified Corn
Corn has been genetically modified so that growers can spray it with weed killer and it doesn’t die.
Genetically modified sweet corn has been created, but there is little interest from growers to produce it, because of the unpopular reputation of GMO products.
Unfortunately, fresh sweet corn accounts for only one percent of the corn that is grown.
Most of the corn that is grown today goes to animal feed, ethanol production, and processing as sweeteners and additives to countless industrial applications. These are the products to avoid consuming, to reduce the GMO’s in the world.
Enjoy Corn at Its Best
Sweet corn is a fresh treat of summertime. The best corn will come from a local grower because the shortest time from harvest to eating improves the final product considerably. Remove the husk right before you cook it. Try eating it raw for a sweet and crisp addition to any salad.