How do you eat your corn on the cob?

[SheenaGreena]

I eat corn like my mother does, I hold the cob in my fist vertically and then pluck each kernal off with my thumb or bite each one at a time with my teeth. I think this is the korean method, as I see a lot of koreans do it this way. They must do it like this, cause korean corn is awful. It tastes like a starchy mess and it sticks to your teeth.

[Lilija]

You people plan your corn? You have a method!?

Chalk me up as random, and bewildered about all these methods. I thought the typewriter thing was limited to Disney cartoons. My housemate does the typewriter thing, but he's got some insane food quirks, I thought the corn thing was just another one of his oddities. Come to think of it, my husband eats rings, starting with the left, cleaning the cob completely around in a spiral, to the right. Here I thought they were just nuts.

Me? I just eat the thing. A bite here, a bite there, till it's gone. I eat indivudual kernels when it's really good, and I feel like playing around and making it last, by plucking each one out between my teeth, and popping them.

[hummingbirdkiss]

Eating corn for me is a huge messy process that I can just become so engrossed in nothing else matters!!! I roll my corn first in mayo...and then parmesan cheese ..squeeze a lime on top then sprinkle New Mexican chile...I eat it randomnly in a very unseemly manner leaving big chunks of kernals still intact...and of course getting it all over my face...then I reroll in mayo..cheese ...lime juice and more chile!!!

you would think all those toppings would bury the corn ..but good sweet roasted corn gets better and better to me with each layer of toppings!!!

we do not get good corn until the end of summer here ...sigh...

[sugarsugar]

I had braces as a teenager, and at the time my previously-braced (?) cousin taught me a trick that I still do to this day. I use a fork - shove it into the corn at the side so it's underneath the kernels and slide it along the cob, then lift. You get a nice flat forkful of kernels that are very easy (and tidy) to eat. I never get corn in my teeth eating it this way, and have actually converted a few folks to my method!

It actually doesn't look that weird, and works amazingly well.

[Anna N]

With eight real teeth left, it is better for me to cut the kernels on to the plate.

It is lovely though to gnaw at the cob  but it  impacts  my dentures something terrible   

Such is the life of an Englishman .

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I hear you loud and clear - another English person!

[miladyinsanity]

I eat corn like my mother does, I hold the cob in my fist vertically and then pluck each kernal off with my thumb or bite each one at a time with my teeth.  I think this is the korean method, as I see a lot of koreans do it this way.  They must do it like this, cause korean corn is awful.  It tastes like a starchy mess and it sticks to your teeth.

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I feel better already. I eat it like that too.

[Domestic Goddess]

Like Kouign A,

I love corn in many, myraid ways...

Boiled

Steamed

Grilled

Nuked

When I have only one corn, I eat typewriter style starting with the biggest end first. I savor each bite and try to make my corn pulling style as neat as possible.

But when I have like a plateful of corn (this is the case usually), I can eat randomly and then switch to typewriter, then to random again.

There is no more beautiful sight to me than being presented with a plate of freshly cooked corn with a tub of butter on the side. No salt, just plain butter.

[aliaseater]

I do my best to make a neat spiral.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Buttered and salted .. and I, too, employ the "typewriter method" ...

How I will eat this mutant corn ear is something else though ...

[toweringpine]

I never really considered it before... sometimes I do the typewriter but if it is really good corn and I am on the last peice I will go in circles to make it last a little longer ( there is no way I could slow it down to one kernel at a time no matter how tasty!! ).

At the Taste of the Danforth ( annual food festival held in Toronto ) I saw booths selling grilled corn. There were great tubs of butter to spread on but the spreader was what made all the difference. Lime wedges to dip in the butter and spread it. I found just the little bit of lime flavour they left behind really added to the experience.

[Megan Kathleen]

Brushed with pesto and grilled in the husk (silk removed first, of course), then in Simon's "matrix" method.

[Rebecca Kneen]

I employ a combination, mostly depending on how tender the corn is. More importantly, I prefer to eat it straight out of the garden, raw. If it's too tough to eat like that, I don't want it! But I do cook it too, still eschewing any toppings.

How about favourite varieties? I prefer the sugar-enhanced ones for freezing and if I have to purchase corn, as the sugars hold up better. Super-Sugar-Enhanced varieties are just too sweet, with no real corn flavour (read: starch) left. From my own garden:

Gentleman's White, which is a great old heritage variety with shoe-peg kernels. Totally defies typewriter eating.

Rebecca

[deltadoc]

Hold it vertically with one of those little corn-on-the-cob pointed cob holders, slice the corn off onto the plate, S&P and add butter. Lots less messy than trying to break my front crowns off eating straight off the cob.

doc

[jgm]

Starting any day now, we're going to have some corn stands around town, and I'll run out on my lunch hour and get a half dozen ears.

We nuke them, in the husk, for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes each. (If it's grocery store corn, then 3 minutes each. The stuff from the stands is either very, very fresh, or is of a more tender variety.) Then we open the husks, pull all the silk out in 1 tug, then use butter and salt. The husks become a handle.

Then I use the typewriter method, but leave exactly two rows. If the ear is cool enough, I call the dog over, and hold the ear by both ends while he bites kernels off with his front teeth. I try to get him to use the typewriter method, but he's usually too excited.

Then I let him clean off any stray kernels.

Then the cobs/husks go straight to the dumpster outside, or the dog will dig them out of the trash, devour the entire cob, and need surgery again. Yes, again!

Edited June 28, 2007 by jgm (log)

[opqdan]

If I am in a hurry, I will typewriter, but most of the time I will simply cut the corn from the cob and eat it that way. I find the cutting method to be much cleaner and I don't get stuff stuck between my teeth (which I hate).

If I am feeling particulary dorky, I will eat the kernels in a checkerboard pattern (which takes just short of forever), or even spell things out (at which point my wife tells me to stop acting like a child )

[Matthew Lewin]

Personally, I would be very wary of a GF who didn't use the typewriter method. To me, that's the kind of person who will squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle and take eggs from the middle of the box

[srhcb]

Did you ever notice that all ears of corn have an even number of rows?

The average ear has 16 rows and 800 kernals, and there is one piece of silk for each kernal.

SB

[jgm]

Personally, I would be very wary of a GF who didn't use the typewriter method. To me, that's the kind of person who will squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle and take eggs from the middle of the box

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I always take eggs out of the middle of the box. It balances better that way. But then, I'm an incredible klutz, and need all the advantages I can get.

[jgm]

Did you ever notice that all ears of corn have an even number of rows?

The average ear has 16 rows and 800 kernals, and there is one piece of silk for each kernal.

SB 

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Not to stray from the topic (except that's exactly what I'm doing!), but I would have thought the rows and number of kernels would be Fibonacci numbers. Whassup with that???

OK, to get back on topic... how cleanly do y'all eat the kernels off the cob? I'm a go-back-and-clean-up person. My husband's an eat-it-clean-the-first-time person.

[Kouign Aman]

...I will eat the kernels in a checkerboard pattern (which takes just short of forever), or even spell things out (at which point my wife tells me to stop acting like a child    )

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[petite tête de chou]

Random chomper here, too. Grab the cob and eat, none o' this planning to now eat row 16, niblets 81 thru 125.

[miladyinsanity]

Buttered and salted .. and I, too, employ the "typewriter method" ...

How I will eat  this mutant corn ear is something else though ...

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You don't. You hand it to someone who's not as...hmm... How do I put this politely? Never mind. Hand it to someone else to eat and that solves your problem.

[Tjaart]

In Athens - flame-grilled in the street, slightly charred bits and all, with nothing on it, and then I take the left-over middle part to my hotel-room and chew whatever is possible with a touch of salt.

At home in Africa, only at home, only young cobs fresh off the field, boiled for a few minutes and the salty farmhouse butter dribbling down my chin, sometimes a touch of freshly-grated black pepper, no particular system and usually the core is soft enough to even sit and nibble at it sucking all the juices out!

Otherwise not at all.

[Lady T]

In Athens - flame-grilled in the street, slightly charred bits and all, with nothing on it, and then I take the left-over middle part to my hotel-room and chew whatever is possible with a touch of salt.

At home in Africa, only at home, only young cobs fresh off the field, boiled for a few minutes and the salty farmhouse butter dribbling down my chin, sometimes a touch of freshly-grated black pepper, no particular system and usually the core is soft enough to even sit and nibble at it sucking all the juices out!

Otherwise not at all.

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Wow. Yum.

Corn season's coming up fast in Chicago-area farmer's markets...nothing needed but sweet butter, sea salt, fresh-ground pepper, and about five minutes' cooking time. And something good to drink. And maybe a platter of good ripe sliced tomatoes and/or sweet onions, if you feel so inclined. There are more involved Saturday-night suppers, but none better.

Edited to add, and to stay on topic: I do my bites in columns, rather than typewriter-style rows.

Edited July 1, 2007 by Lady T (log)

[Hest88]

I also slice corn off the cob, as my dad taught me. It not only means less flossing, but I like the texture of the resulting kernel slabs. If I'm too lazy to slice and just want to retreat to the couch with a book and an ear of corn, I will also twist off the kernels one by one. (Yes, I'm weird. I will also bite into them in a normal manner if I'm eating corn in public, but it's not my preferred method.)