How’s Your Corn Been?

Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 2:00pm  |  COMMENTS (30)

I’ve always loved summer corn on the cob, but never so much as this summer, when I learned that Weight Watchers assigns only 1 point to a medium ear. I’ve eaten a lot of corn while losing weight this summer, and most of it has been very, very good. Even grocery store corn has been good, sometimes even topping farm-stand corn. Mista Barista likes to soak it in the husk, then put it on the grill, but I find it almost as tasty wrapped in wax paper and zapped for a minute or two in the microwave. I don’t mind chomping on a cob, but I also didn’t mind when Market, serving up its delicious pick-four-vegetable plate, sliced it off for me, presenting a neat little pile of fresh sweet. I’m not much of a connoisseur of the various corn varieties, and I don’t believe white is necessarily sweeter than pedestrian yellow. (I don’t pull the husks down to check it, either.) For diet purposes, it’s great sliced into any salad, but this corn fritter recipe over at Best of New Jersey, could make me fall off the wagon.
So, how’s the corn been for you? And where’s the best around?
Speaking of corn, I could happily extend August another whole month, but over at Barista Kids, Kristen seems a little anxious to get fall, and school, underway. Go over and vote in the poll.

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30 Comments

  1. POSTED BY Katie  |  August 25, 2009 @ 2:12 pm

    I haven’t had any corn this year! In fact I’ve been missing out on fresh vegetables all summer due to laziness. What is wrong with me?! Note to self: Get to the farmer’s market this weekend.

  2. POSTED BY Nellie  |  August 25, 2009 @ 2:22 pm

    I had corn on the cob with lobster last week. Yum!!!!!!!!

  3. POSTED BY weeder  |  August 25, 2009 @ 2:30 pm

    I do the microwave thing too, but don’t bother with the wax paper. Just leave on a thin layer of husk. Also no need to pull down the husks when buying (makes me crazy seeing people do that); just feel the kernels at the small end of the cob to make sure whole ear is filled out. I think corn is bred to stay sweeter for longer now; haven’t had a bad ear yet.

  4. POSTED BY herbeverschmel  |  August 25, 2009 @ 2:38 pm

    I was just saying last night its been a bad year for corn. I just haven’t had the perfect piece yet. The corn seems to be mealy (sp?) this year. I think now that most of the small farms in North Jersey have gone McMansion that the corn were getting is that 3 day old junk from Florida.
    I like to soak the corn in water for an hour , pull the husk back and remove the hair, slap on some oil and Seasonella and then re-wrap it and put it on the grill.

  5. POSTED BY profwilliams  |  August 25, 2009 @ 2:42 pm

    I’m a boiler or griller. The microwave just sounds wrong.
    2 Things:
    – Sweet corn comes in yellow, white and bi-color, therefore there is nothing to the idea that one color is sweeter than another as all can come in a supersweet variety (isn’t corn the most engineered food around? It’s got to be one of ‘em).
    – The best indication of quality is not to pull half the husk down, like most do (I hate this over handling of food), but to feel the weight of the corn. It should feel heavy for its size. That’s all, find a heavy ear, and you got a good one. (And the idea of pulling the husk is so dumb, kinda like the Seinfeld joke about folks looking under the hood of a broken car- as if they are expecting to see a big ON/OFF switch.)
    Lastly, in the prof house, we commence with the CHUCKING OF THE COB every year, with every ear— Off the deck into the backyard of our palatial estate in Upper Montclair.

  6. POSTED BY Blu  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:05 pm

    I boil it in water cause I don’t have a grill at home. Microwaving it makes it taste like corn cob to me.
    Corn is engineered to stay sweet – it was selected for a lack of enzyme that turns the glucose in the kernal into starch.
    It isn’t diet food the way I like it – drowned in butter with salt.

  7. POSTED BY MellonBrush  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:11 pm

    The best corn I ever had was in Maryland during a camping trip. It was literally all we ate for dinner for 3 days. Boy, was I regular after that trip!
    Prof is right about the best corn being white and yellow and heavy for it’s size. We steam it and I don’t use butter/salt anymore. I think it tastes best plain.

  8. POSTED BY Generically named Mike  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:17 pm

    The corn they sell at WF is almost always great. Very sweet and tasty. Just throw it in a pot or on the grill until it gets hot and chow down. I haven’t used butter or salt on corn once this summer.
    (I’ve even had an ear or two raw and they were still delicious.)

  9. POSTED BY PAZ  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:20 pm

    Had the best sweet corn this past weekend bought from a farmstand in the finger lakes. All in all a pretty good summer for corn in PazLand.

  10. POSTED BY mathilda  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

    Corn is the monocrop of our time. It is a symbol of all that is wrong with our technology obsessed society and the greed it thrives upon. Instead of buying corn from the corporate farms that have taken over our country, we should each be tending our own vegetable gardens, rife with variety–tomatoes, peppers, spinach, and my personal favorite, skunk cabbage.

  11. POSTED BY cranky  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:34 pm

    We’e tried Farmer’s Market, Mattarazzo, Richfield farms. The usual supermarkets, too. It’s all been mealy, or too starchy. Only good ones we had were off of a farmstand in July, in Cape May County. White. sweet. Otherwise, it has been a poor year.

  12. POSTED BY Generically named Mike  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:39 pm

    (Except for the skunk cabbage part, Mathilda’s garden sounds like a feature out of my dream home. Throw some celery in there and I’d be all set.)

  13. POSTED BY Nellie  |  August 25, 2009 @ 3:49 pm

    I would need some swiss chard thrown in.

  14. POSTED BY jerseygurl  |  August 25, 2009 @ 4:07 pm

    Trying out my new vegetable garden for the first time this year (compost bin included). All varieties of tomatoes are doing well, cucumbers and beans are abundant, herbs good, hot peppers good. Herbs are gorgeous. Arugula was alright. Small bunches. Tough time so far with the sweet peppers and the lettuces. Maybe I should try some skunk cabbage. We will definitely add zucchini and yellow squash next year instead of romaine, spinach, and mesclun mix.

  15. POSTED BY MellonBrush  |  August 25, 2009 @ 4:30 pm

    If you live in Colorado you can now legally grow up to 6 of the other kind of skunk!

  16. POSTED BY BaristaPet  |  August 25, 2009 @ 4:48 pm

    Few can afford the luxury to grow their own food in urban areas where land is mainly for the rich.
    Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a society where it was easier and cheaper for people to have fresh fish, meat, veggies and fruit – rather than fast food and stodge.
    But it is not. Good produce costs money. criminal really.
    All we can manage in our tiny space is tomatoes and herbs (most in pots!). The mint is good this year (great in a mojito!).

  17. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 25, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

    Nellie, I love your taste in the finer things, even if we disagree politically.

  18. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 25, 2009 @ 5:10 pm

    Prof, kudos on the grilling bit, but, boiling? Give me a break. You get better flavor and more nutrients if you steam the corn. Be a good economy stimulator professor and buy a collander. Place it in a pot over an inch of water that you bring to a boil. Let the steam bring out the best in the kernel.
    Submerging corn in boiling water only makes the corn look like it’s been in the bathtub too long. Kind of like of a corn-prune hybrid.

  19. POSTED BY Nellie  |  August 25, 2009 @ 5:31 pm

    Thanks, Spiro…In most cases, people can find some common ground.

  20. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 25, 2009 @ 5:38 pm

    Nellie – that might be the nicest post ever gracing Baristanet.

  21. POSTED BY profwilliams  |  August 25, 2009 @ 5:57 pm

    Will give steaming a go tomorrow– any excuse for corn, thanks for the tip.
    But, as I’ve learned, taste is individual.
    Therefore, I must try the microwave– no use hatin’ on a method when I’ve not tried it.
    I’ll try that on Thursday.

  22. POSTED BY Kacey  |  August 25, 2009 @ 8:07 pm

    The best we’ve had this season, consistently — Vacchiano Farms @ Montclair Farmers Market.

  23. POSTED BY Mrs. Martta  |  August 25, 2009 @ 8:40 pm

    Yes, it’s been a great season for corn. We buy ours at Foodtown and it’s exceptional: large ears and SWEET! We husk ours right before we eat them and just boil them for 3 minutes, that’s all you need. Butter is optional, it’s so good.
    PS: The silk makes great tea, too.

  24. POSTED BY Pork Roll  |  August 26, 2009 @ 3:15 am

    Tea?

  25. POSTED BY herbeverschmel  |  August 26, 2009 @ 8:37 am

    Cranky, You are spot on…just hasn’t been a good year.

  26. POSTED BY Mrs. Martta  |  August 26, 2009 @ 9:03 am

    Yes, you can brew the corn silk for about 5 minutes for a tasty tea. Supposedly good as a diuretic and for kidney stones, too.

  27. POSTED BY lisabells  |  August 26, 2009 @ 9:43 am

    I have to agree with Kacey.. The corn at the Farmer’s Market specifically Vacchiano Farms has been great!

  28. POSTED BY frankgg  |  August 26, 2009 @ 10:50 am

    My favorite is White Jersey Corn from Smith’s Farm Market on Allaire Road in Wall Township. Locked inside that flavor are all of my Jersey Shore summer memories.

  29. POSTED BY Mauigirl  |  August 26, 2009 @ 11:15 am

    For many summers I worked on a farm and tended the farmstand. I got spoiled with corn fresh out of the field every day. I even ate it raw – it is very sweet then!
    This summer we had some great fresh yellow and white corn up in the Adirondacks – and it was from the supermarket (Hannaford’s)! But it said “local corn” and as an old pro I could tell it was fresh, and was very pleased. We put it in the oven in its husk in lieu of steaming it (our cabin did not yet have a pot large enough to steam it) and it came out great. We have also grilled it in its husk with equally good results.

  30. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 26, 2009 @ 1:03 pm

    So Prof, how was the steamed corn?

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