How to Cook Fresh Corn - Part 3, Getting Your Ears Wet!

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ICYMI:  Part 1  Part 2

Now that you've picked out some awesome corn and examined the most used cooking methods of corn, let's say that you've chosen to boil as your method this time.  How do you go about it?

Your Setup

Probably not that big of a pot, though.

The first thing you're going to need is a pot big enough to cook all of the corn in.  If you don't have a stockpot here is a link to a bunch of them for you to choose from.

If your ears have a bit of the stem still on them, you can chop that off.  It's inedible and will just take up space in the pot.

Put your ears in the pot and just cover them with water.  The pot should be large enough to accommodate your ears and the water while leaving 1-2 inches until the rim.  You can use a smaller pot but you'll have much more of a mess!! 

You don't need to salt the water.  The corn won't absorb the salt and a pinch of salt doesn't raise the boiling point significantly. 

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Eating Corn on the Cobb is Tricky without These

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To Shuck or Not to Shuck, That is the Question

It bears saying that you don't NEED to shuck the ears before boiling them.  However, there is a big advantage to it.

Needless to say, you are going to have to shuck the ears eventually.  While they are easier to shuck after boiling, they are also saturated in hot water!  If you pre-shuck the ears then you don't have to fight with hot water running down your arm.

Win-Win!!

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Cooking The Corn

Cover your pot and put it on the stovetop set to high heat.  

Once the corn starts to boil, reduce the heat to where it is still at a boil but it won't boil over.  You should only need it to cook for about 3-5 minutes.  (5-7 Minutes if the shucks are still on.)  You're aiming for the kernels to be soft but still have a bit of a pop when you bite into them.

Remove the ears with tongs and set on a plate or platter to drain and cool down a bit.

Once they are cool enough to handle without burning yourself, carefully wipe away any silks that are still attached.  They will come off much easier after cooking than before.  Using a paper towel for this helps keep you from getting burned and collects the silk easily.

If you didn't pre-shuck your ears, then you're going to need to shuck them (without burning yourself, please!) and then de-silk them.

Serving the Corn

Now that you're ears are cooked, there are endless options to serving!  Here are two great ways.

My favorite way is to simply serve the corn on the cobb.  Put some butter, salt, and pepper on the table and let people slather up their ears to their preference.  So good!!

You can also cut the kernels from the cobb, put the butter, salt, and pepper on yourself before serving.  This can be tricky if you don't know the trick! 

The Trick To Cutting Kernels off the Cobb

Stolen from BHG.com

Grab yourself a bunt pan and set it on a stable surface.  If your surface is slippery, put a pot-holder or non-slip pad underneath it.  Now, stand the ear of corn on its end on the middle "spout" of the bunt pan.  Holding the ear in place with your non-dominate hand, cut straight down the side of the ear to separate the kernels from the cobb.  Now rotate the ear and cut another row.

The bunt pan will catch all of the kernels as they fall to prevent a mess.  The "spout" of the bunt pan keeps the ear in place and your hands away from the knife.

So easy!!

In Part 4 we'll look at Oven Roasting your ears!

How to Cook Fresh Corn - Part 2, Choose Wisely

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In Part 1 (here's a link if you haven't seen it) you learned about the types of corn and how to pick out good ears of corn as well as some tips on storing it.

Today we're going to get into the actual cooking of corn!  (About time, right!!)

Getting Your Ears Ready

No, not this kind of ear!

The first thing you need to do with your ears of corn is to get them ready.  This is a stupendously easy task.  If your corn ears are frozen, let them thaw.

There, you're ready.

Seriously, that's it.  

No, you don't need to wash them. (Unless they are covered in mud, then it might be a good idea just to keep your kitchen clean.)  The husks protect the kernels from getting dirt and gunk on them.  You're not going to eat the husks so there is no need to make sure they are sparkly clean. 

While you can shuck them at this point, if you want, there really is no reason to.  Yup, that's right, corn comes with its own cooking blanket!!

If you have some particularly picky people at your table then you might want to shuck and de-silk your ears, but it is not necessary.  In fact, the cooking process will make cleaning the ears easier, so you might want to wait.

Choosing Your Cooking Method

Just about any way you can add heat to food is a good way to cook corn.  The most popular ways are boiling, oven roasting, and grilling.

Boiling

Double, bubble, toil and trouble...

Boiling ears of corn is very popular because it doesn't heat up the kitchen as much as oven roasting does.  Back in the day when air conditioning wasn't a thing, creating as little heat during the hotter months was a very big deal!  

In today's modern kitchen with our better insulation, more efficient ovens, and powerful air conditioners it isn't as much of a problem.

The problem with boiling is that it uses a lot of energy, water, and time.  It takes a lot of energy and time to bring the water to a boil and keep it there while the corn cooks.  While it doesn't take long to cook the corn this way, pots aren't insulated and don't keep the heat in like an oven does.  There's no real use for water that's had corn cooked in it, so it's usually just thrown out.

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Need a stockpot to boil in??  Here are some to choose from.

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Oven Roasting

Hmmm... That oven is much cleaner than mine...

Oven roasting is a great way of cooking ears of corn if you're already going to be using the oven for something anyway.  If you're cooking a roast, for example, then after you pull the roast out you can slide the corn in.  The ears cook so quickly that you're using much less energy to fix them this way.

The downside to using the oven is if you don't already have it heated then you have to get it up to temp.

A way around this is to use the broiler function on your oven!  As Alton Brown says, your broiler is just an upside-down grill.  You just need to make sure that you turn them occasionally to get all the sides evenly heated.

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Despite the picture above, most people use sheet pans.  Click here if you need one.

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Grilling

Stolen from food-fire.com

If you've already got the grill fired up, might as well use that to cook your corn!  Unlike the with the oven, usually, you don't have to wait until you've pulled everything else out (off??) of the grill before putting the corn in.  

We don't normally grill large objects like a ham that would take up all of the room.  So, you can slap the corn down beside the hot dogs and burgers.

Using a grill you can add a lot of flavor to the corn, as well.  Getting little grill marks on your kernels will not only add some awesome color but flavor as well!  We'll get into that when we go more in-depth in the grilling section.

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Keep your grill clean with a grill scrubber.

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Next time, we'll start the actual cooking process by giving you some ideas on boiling corn.

Stay tuned!!

How to Cook Fresh Corn - Part 1, Pick Your Corn Not Your Nose

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You have probably watched my video on the history of corn (if not, what are you waiting for????) but you may be wondering exactly how to prepare corn.

I'm talking fresh corn, right off the stalk.  Or, at least as soon after harvest as you can.

Stolen from DailyDot.com

The Types of Corn

Let's step back a second and give you a little corny info.  

There are, basically, four types of corn: Sweet, Field, Pop, and Indian.  All of them are eatable just not in the same way.

Field corn is the "original" corn.  It is very starchy like a potato instead of sweet like, well, sweet corn.  Most of the corn grown today is field corn.  It is largely used for things like cattle feed, deer feed, hog feed, or ethanol.  Normally, it is left on the stalk to dry out, then a combine is used to pick it.  If picked when ripe, it can be eaten by humans.  We just prefer the taste of sweet corn.

Yup, you can pop it on the cobb!

You probably know popcorn.  It is a type of corn that has a thinner outer shell and a hollow bit inside that holds water.  When heated, the water turns to steam and expands causing the corn to pop open.  Most popcorn we eat are types of field corn but there are some sweet corn varieties.

Indian corn is that beautiful colorful corn that you see around Thanksgiving time.  Most Indian corn is a type of field corn.  Some are of the popcorn variety.  There are some sweet corn varieties that are also Indian style.  Indian corn is cultivated for its beauty and is not normally eaten and that's a shame.    We love colorful foods and there are very few foods as colorful as Indian corn!!

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Click To Get Your Beautiful Indian Corn Decorations Here!!

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Sweet corn was purposely cultivated from field corn to give us its sweet taste.  This is the type of corn that you will normally find in your grocery store, farmer's market, or supermarket.  It doesn't matter if it's canned, frozen, or on the cobb; most likely it is the sweet variety.

How You Can Buy Corn

Most folks are used to getting their corn in a bag or can.  While convenient, it's not always the best option for your application. 

Stolen from cheatsheet.com

Canned corn is super easy to use.  It's already cooked and many times already seasoned.  Just open the can, heat it up, and enjoy!  If you're not particular, even the heating-it-up-bit is non-necessary.  Cold canned corn is just as much of a meal as hot canned corn.

Frozen corn is, for most applications, the best way.  You can get frozen corn pre-cooked or non-cooked, seasoned or plain, all by itself or with some other friendly veggies.  As long as you have freezer space and power, you should be good to go!!

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You Can Get Bulk Frozen Corn Delivered!

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Fresh corn is, IMHO, the best corn.  Straight off of the cobb is the way to go!  It is surprisingly easy and quick to cook this way.  It can be frozen while still fresh on the cobb if you have too much for one meal.  

You can buy fresh corn from grocers when it's in season but it, most likely, isn't as good as you'll get from a farmer's market.  Most farmers who sell through a reseller have to pick their crops before they are completely ripened so that they don't go bad on the way to the store.  However, if your market buys from local growers, you might be getting it as fresh as you can.  (Depends on their definition of "local.")  The only real way to know is to try it!

What To Look For When Buying Fresh Corn

Now that you've decided to cook yourself up some fresh corn, how do you know if corn is any good?

First, always buy fresh corn that still has the husks and silks still attached.  Unhusked corn goes bad quickly and the silks are what let you know the quality of your corn.

Sometimes you just need a quick fix.

Like bananas, a little color on your corn silks indicates ripeness.  You want them to have started turning brown (gold is their color when unripened) but not black.  They should feel moist but not spongy.  Dry silks indicate old corn.  Silks that feel and smell moldy mean that the corn has gone bad.

Now, look at the husks.  They should be bright green.  A little browning around the edges is fine.  Husks that look old and wrinkled indicate an older, dryer ear of corn.

Put the ear in your palm and give it a gentle squeeze.  It should feel firm with just a touch of give.  It should feel like the center (the cobb) is hard but that the outside (the kernels) have some flexibility.  A soft cobb shows a bad ear.  If there is no give in the kernels then the corn isn't ripe yet.

NOTE: Never peel back the husk to look at the kernels.  You are destroying someone else's property by doing that.  You can tell just fine through the husk.  If in doubt, move on to another ear.

Keeping Your Corn

Corn can be kept for a few days to a week on the counter.  The only caveat to this is that you

Stolen from Dinner-Mom.com

don't know how long your grocer had it sitting out.  When you bought the corn it was, most likely, not under any refrigeration.  

If you're planning on cooking it that, or the next, night just leave it on the counter.

However, if it's going to be a few days, you might want to put it in the chill chest.  Better safe than sorry!

If you're planning on putting it back for later in the year, you can use your freezer.  Keep the husk on, seal the ears in an airtight bag, remove as much of the air as you can from the bag, and put them in the freezer.  Not removing the husks will help keep the kernels from getting frostbite.  Not having frostbite is always a great thing!!

Next Time... Cooking Your Corn!!

Why is Sugar so Hard to Replace???

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Sugar is everywhere.

Would you say that's a fair statement?  We humans love to put sugar in just about everything.  I even know a couple that likes to put sugar in their scrambled eggs!!  **BLECH**

Stolen from https://www.micheletaylorfitness.com

There also happens to be an epidemic of diabetes rampaging across the Western side of the world.  

Coincidence????? Many people think not.

There is a growing movement of folks who are trying to reduce the amount of sugar in their lives.  Some take on a special way of eating such as Adkins, Primal, Paleo, LC/HF, Keto, etc to help them limit their sugar intake.  Other's are simply trying to use other sweeteners in their foods.

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Looking for Some Sugar Substitutes?  Here's a Bunch of Them!

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Whatever the reason or method you are using to try and reduce your sugar intake you are probably having difficulty with it.  You have most likely found that you can't simply exchange sugar with another type of sweetener and everything be OK.

Why??

Well, sugar can do a whole lot more than sweeten things.  Sugar has some really awesome properties that chefs have been exploiting for thousands of years.  Let's take a look at five of them.

1. Moisturizing

No, I don't mean like the stuff you put on your face at night to keep your skin flexible.  Well, maybe I do.  The effect is similar.  But, don't let anyone try to eat your face.  Not a good time.

Sugar is hygroscopic.  That means that it quickly and easily attracts, absorbs, and holds on to water.

When you add sugar to your baked goods you're also adding the ability to keep moisture in your baked goods.

When you remove sugar from your baked goods you're also removing some of the recipe's ability to hold onto moisture.  Sugar-free recipes need to have something else added to make up for the loss of liquid absorption.

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Looking for Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips?  Here are Some!

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2. Spreading

Stolen from: https://howtonestforless.com

If you'll notice in many of your favorite sweets recipes, sugar is treated like it's a liquid instead of a solid.  It's mixed in with the milk and vanilla instead of the flour and salt. 

The reason is that sugar reacts to heat more like a liquid than a solid.

Because of sugar's hygroscopic properties (see point 1) it will absorb the liquid that you're mixing it with.  So, when you're mixing up your batter, it will be a bit thicker than it really needs to be.

Also, if you've ever tried to mix sugar into your iced tea at the table, you know that sugar doesn't dissolve well in cold liquids.  It takes a bit (but not a lot) of heat to get it all melted.

These two factors mean that when you put your mounds of cookie dough in the oven to bake, the sugar will melt long before the flour and eggs start to set.  All of a sudden, your cookies will have a lot more liquid in them than they did before and will start to ooze out.  (In a yummy way, not an icky way.)

Leaving sugar out of your cookies results in them being more like blobs and less like cookies.

3. Browning

Stolen from: https://www.seriouseats.com

Caramel is burned sugar.

Super yummy burned sugar.

Whether it's the chewy caramel in your candy bar or the crispy caramel on top of your Creme Brule.  It's all burned sugar.  There's really no substitute.

Even if you're not making caramel, sugar still plays a role in browning.  

Consider the wonderful brown coloring of a honey baked ham.  That color is the result of the sugar in the honey getting a touch over-done.  That is one of the reasons that you will often see sugar pop up low on the list of ingredients for items you never thought would have sugar in them.  Sugar is the least expensive way we have to get the Golden Brown in "Golden Brown and Delicious."

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With or Without Sugar, You're Going to Need a Thermometer!

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4. Structure

Stolen from: https://img.leafcdn.tv

Sugar has some pretty strong crystal structure for something that is normally liquified in our food.

If you've ever made divinity candy then you've used the power of sugar to hold up a super soft, super delicate cookie. 

Like many strong things, it can also be very brittle if used in small enough amounts.  The aforementioned divinity candy can crumble just by being picked up.  However, Rock Candy (which is just flavored sugar) is strong enough to cause Lego level pain if stepped upon.  (All of you that have had 3-year olds, represent!!)

5. Melting / Boiling Point

When used in large enough quantities, the mass of sugar can alter the melting or boiling point of whatever it's in.

OK, so, that's technically true of everything, not just sugar.

Stolen from: https://owenduffy.net

You may have heard some TV chefs talk about how adding a bit of salt to water changes the boiling point of the water.  This is true, but not in any meaningful way.  You can't even measure the difference without expensive, specialized equipment.

What makes sugar different than salt isn't a property of sugar but how much of it we tend to use!  Typically we only use a pinch to a tablespoon of salt.  With sugar, we're talking cups.  There are 16 TBS (or 48 tsp) in a cup.  That's a huge difference!

This state-changing alteration is due to the mass of sugar.  If you use some of the alternative sweeteners that measure cup-for-cup like sugar you'll notice that a cup of the non-caloric stuff is much lighter than the sugar is.  Without all that mass, it can't affect the boiling or melting points of your dish like sugar can.

More...

That isn't all that sugar can do for and to your food.  Here is my video with a much more comprehensive list.  

In Conclusion:

Sugar is kind of a wonder material.  It does so much.  The brilliant folks who developed so many of the recipes that we base much of our Western way of eating on really delved into all the things sugar does.

Stolen from: http://www.heart.org

Back in the days before lounge chairs and where walking was the main source of transportation, most people burned off all or most of the calories from all of the sugars in the recipes they were concocting fairly easily.  However, today's desk-jockey lifestyle is less tolerant of such high-calorie intake. 

Most of us are trying to cut back on our sugar intake, which is great! We just need to understand that removing sugar removes much more than sweetness.

The most important thing to keep in mind as you alter any recipe to fit your way of eating is: Things that are different are not the same!

 

How America Came to Love Grilling, or An American Staple Because of an American Icon

This blog may contain affiliate links. These links will take you to websites that sell items. If you use these links to buy items from these sellers you are helping to support Professor Kitchen at no extra charge to you. Thank you very much!!

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Do you own a grill??  I'll bet you do!

This article on the Northern Virginia website says that the Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association claims 75% of all American households own a grill!

According to the Statista website, the UK nearly matches the US with 70% household ownership and Ireland tops us both with 82%!!! 

WOW!!  Go Ireland!!

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Protect Yourself When You BBQ, Wear Gloves!

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Ireland and grilling go together like, well, Ireland and grilling!

Grilling is not new.  

Grilling has been around as long as mankind and fire have co-existed.  It's not exactly a new technology.  That's really what makes this level of grill ownership so amazing.

We humans love our "new and improved" technology.  We have all kinds of ways to cook food in today's modern society.  Even with all of the modern tech, we still love to go old school and break out a grill from time to time!

But... Why???

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Grills can be expensive.  Protect yours with a cover.

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Enter an Icon

The rise of the modern use of the grill can be traced back, as odd as it seems, to a time when people were embracing technology changes and rejecting the old, "antiquated" methods.

The 20th century was a time of great change and transformation.  The old moguls of industry and finance were collapsing.  The handful of Titans of Industry that held American culture, technology, and finances under their thumb had collapsed under the weight of their own self-importance.

The Great War had come and gone.  In its wake, it left more destruction than was originally understood.  The power of a generation of men and women who had learned to stand up for what they believed in on a global stage changed the way people thought and reacted to those in power.

Henry Ford, Icon of the Grill?!?!?

Enter a man with a new way of thinking.  A man with a head full of ideas that would empower people for his benefit as well as theirs. A man that understood that empowered people were productive people, productive people were prosperous people, and that prosperous people were happy people.

Enter Henry Ford.

More Innovation Than You May Know

His innovative ideas on manufacturing and worker productivity are well known.  (As is his bigotry and hatred.)  What's not so well know is his work on transforming Western home cooking culture.

You see, when the famous Model T was taking off, there were no highways, no interstate systems, no overpasses, underpasses, or continent-spanning roadways.  Most of the world was strung together with glorified trails.  At best, Roman cobblestone roadways were in use.  Most of the time it was just dirt tracks.

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Need Some Charcoal for Your Next Cookout?  Shop Here!

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There were no Holiday Inn Express motels to stop at for the night.  No McDonalds to grab a bite on your way to visit grandma.  Very few gasoline stations, even, at which you could fill up that amazing new car you were able to afford because of Mr. Ford.

If you went somewhere where the drive time included mealtime, you had to pack your own meals.  Now day's that's called "being thrifty."  Back then it was called "not staving."

Having sandwiches all of the time gets boring so Henry thought that he would give his customers a way to have hot meals while traveling plus put a little extra money in his pocket.  He started selling portable grills at his dealerships!

The nation loved it!!!

There's more to the story, but you're going to have to watch my video to find out what!  

Shameless Plug!!!