Knee high by the Fourth of July
By Bruce Cole - Published 07.01.04
Bike corn. Sad but true, by the time corn on the cob ends up in a pile on the grocers shelf, it's at least 3-7 days old, and the precious sugars that give corn it's seductive sweetness have morphed into dowdy starches that have about as much flavor as an old shoelace. The freshest corn is usually found at roadside farm stands, and the one we used to frequent 35 years ago employed a farm hand who would hop on a bike, peddle off through the stalks, and return with the handlebar basket overflowing with just cut cobs. We called it "bike corn", and unless you picked it yourself, this was the closest thing to fresh corn on the cob you could get.
Mr. Green Genes. Only about 10% of the corn grown in the United States is of the sweet eating variety. The other 90 % is field corn, most of which goes to cattle feed or the making of corn syrup and other products. Sweet corn is actually field corn that is graced with a recessive gene, which thankfully, makes it edible (at least to us non-ruminants). The Super Sweet variety, which is the dominant hybrid grown in the US, is also known as sh2 or shrunken 2 gene. It gets it's name from the appearance of the dried kernel, which contains so little starch, that it appears significantly shrunken. Super sweet varieties have a high sugar to starch ratio, and a shelf life of up to 10-12 days, which makes them popular with growers as well as grocers. Sugar levels of super sweet varieties range from 22 to 40 percent, compared to 5 to 11 percent in standard sweet corn. The only complaint with some of these hybirds, is that the complex sugars that make them so sweet, are not water soluable, thus they lack the creaminess of the old fashioned sweet corn. Roadside corn stands are likely to offer a different and juicier variety than the super sweets found in grocery stores. Called Sugar Enhanced, because they contain the "se" gene, which slows the conversion of sugar to starch in the kernels, they are typically creamier than super sweets, but have a shelf life of 1-3 days.
Artisan corn. With names like Apache, Comanchee, Snowbell, Tender Treat, Bonanza and Bodacious, it's a wonder no one has jumped on the artisan-marketing bandwagon to sell their own hand-picked-all-natural-good-old-fashioned-corn-on-the-cob varieties.
Picking out the perfect ear. Touch: it should be cold, which means it's been iced or chilled after harvest, unless of course, you are picking it your self. According to Vegetable Specialists at Oklahoma State University Dept, when sweet corn is stored at temperatures around ’Äú86¬ƒF, 60 percent of the sugar may be converted to starch in 24 hours; whereas, at 32¬ƒF, sugar content would decrease only six percent’Äù. Looks ’Äì outside: dry brownish silk should extend out the top (yellowish silk marks an immature ear) and the husks should be green and crisp. Looks ’Äì inside: Ears with a few immature kernels at the tip will be sweeter and more tender than if the tip kernels have grown to full size. A quick thumb prick should produce a burst of milky juice. Myth: white corn is sweeter than yellow corn or vice-a-versa, sweetness is determined by variety, weather, harvesting, and storage conditions.
Cooking your corn. Tradition calls for a big pot of boiling water for cooking fresh corn, which eventually turns your kitchen into a sauna, just what you need at the end of another scalding hot summer day. Besides, cooking it in water dissolves the sugars and starches essential to pure corn taste, and what you end up with is a pot of corn stock, which gets tossed down the drain. Grilling is a good alternative, but not an option for everyone, especially city dwellers with no backyard. For the best results, try cooking the ears in a pressure cooker. It's quick and easy and doesn't end up ratcheting up the temperature of your kitchen another 10-20 degrees like heating up a large amount of water does. Done in a pressure cooker, the kernels are crisper and sweeter, flavors and aromas are preserved, and because food cooks at a higher temperature (at approximately 250 degrees F), perfect corn on the cob is only a few minutes away.
Buttering your corn. This method is guaranteed to get you stares and guffaws at the table. Take one slice of bread and plop a nice thick pat of butter on top. Place the bread on your plate, and roll a steaming hot ear of corn back and forth on top of the pat of butter, spinning the corn all the time until it is evenly coated with butter. Sprinkle with salt while still turning the corn on your slice of bread. What you end up with, besides a perfectly seasoned ear of corn, is a slice of salted bread drenched with butter. Try and not eat it!
Oh, and it's against the unwritten rules of corn buttering to use the same slice of bread for your next ear of corn - Atkins diet be damned!
© 2004 Bruce Cole. All rights reserved.