Venus Rising

Food for SoulIssue: Leo 08

Give Me Your Ears - Corn on the Cob

Watercolor by Philip GaligaSummer’s bounty is overwhelming with ripe fruits and vegetables. Not only are the flavors of seasonal foods, such as beans, corn, and tomatoes at their best, but the nutritional value of these summer edible icons exceeds any other time of the year. Abundance, flavor, and nutrition are perfect reasons to eat fresh garden fare, but sometimes we would be hard pressed to say that those reasons trump plain old nostalgia. Remember shucking corn on the back porch and then typing your way through the buttery sweet cob? The taste was remarkable!

In the United States, corn on the cob has a long tradition as the quintessential summer side dish. Corn, in and of itself however, predates our modern civilization by about 7000 years. Thought to originate in Mexico via its precursor, a grass called teosinte, corn is human dependent, in that without our planting and nurturing it, corn would not exist naturally in the wild. Originally cultivated in Mexico and Central America, ancient corn's appearance was very different from today’s corn on the cob. Ancient maize, as it was called by Europeans and Indian corn as it was dubbed by pilgrims, had kernels spaced far apart, each covered in its own husk. Over centuries and by the time the Americas were “discovered,” corn, as we know it, was widespread throughout North and South America and had become the basic food of most native cultures including the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs. 

Today, corn is the second most planted grain in the world, after rice. Its most common use is as animal feed. Corn is also the base of many products for direct human consumption, including bourbon, cornmeal and corn flour, oil, corn syrup, and corn starch. Corn and its byproducts are used in an astonishing number of other things too, including plastics, fabrics, and fuel, just to name a few. Humans started their love affair with fresh corn on the cob in the mid-1800s. Later that decade, horticulturists developed sweeter varieties, making corn a top crop for summer gardens. Sweet corn is of three types: white, yellow, and butter and sugar. Yellow corn is popular in the Midwest with its large, plump, bright yellow kernels. White corn has a hold in the Mid-Atlantic States with its small pearly white kernels that span a long cob. Silver Queen is the most common white corn and when fresh, its kernels pop in your mouth. Butter and sugar corn is a speckled mix of creamy white and pale yellow kernels and is the kind you’ll find in New England.

Different preferences also come to bear when cooking corn on the cob. Most people have their own tried and true method of cooking their beloved corn. Some swear by the five minute rule, some say ten. Some cooks don’t “boil” the corn at all but steam it in about an inch of water. Whatever your preferred timing, the method is the same…shuck the corn, remove its silk and add the ears to boiling water. A good rule of thumb is the smaller and younger the corn, the less time to cook and visa versa. Another favorite method of cooking corn is roasting. Roasted corn is cooked without removing the husk. The silk is often removed but the husk is not. The ears are put directly into or over a fire. The corn steams inside its husk, sometimes finishing with a few grill marks here and there. To prevent burning of the husks, soak the entire ear in water before roasting. In Mexico roasted corn is a common street food, served with salt and lime.