Corn the cob. Corn on the cob eaten in gorgeously mess fashion. Pick up and gnawed while butter smears over your fingers and cheeks and runs off your chin. This is eating at the trough and it is socially acceptable. Corn for supper tonight. Along with roast chicken. Not just any corn but Chilliwack peaches and cream corn. The first of the season. Cause for celebration.
Here’s the dos and do nots of this sacred rite of eating with your fingers.
Don’t peel your corn at the market. The husks protect the kernels, keeping them fresh and moist, so leave them intact until you’re ready to cook the corn. You can pick good ears without husking. They should be snugly wrapped in their fresh , green and moist husks.
Run you finger along the ear, feeling the formation of the kernels through the husks. They should feel plump and densely packed.
Look for worm holes. If you see one more on to another ear. If you find a worm after husking just cut it out.
Eat the corn ASAP. The sooner you eat it the better it’ll taste. A local farmer is so pernickity about his corn he sits up a camp stove by the side of his corn field. Puts the water on to boil, and THEN he picks his corn and into the pot. Talk about the 100 mile rule. This man has a 30 second rule. Don’t you love it.
If you must store corn, wrap unhusked ears in damp paper towels and keep them in a plastic bag in your fridge’s produce bin for two to three days.
Put your corn into ALREADY boiling water. NO SALT NO SUGAR NO MILK. Cook from three to six or eight minutes. If your corn is very tender two to three minutes does the trick. Drain and serve lavished with butter, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Bon Appetit.
