How do you eat your corn on the cob?

[Susan in FL]

This is just too cool for school. I'm laughing too hard right now to formulate a response. I love it.

There. I've calmed down a bit. I'm a left to rightie, and not that I've thought of it before, but now that you mention it, I can imagine the ding at the end of the row. Plenty of butter and salt for me.

[Jason Perlow]

I believe the technical terms for corn on the cob eating techniques are known as:

A ROUNDER - eats around the cob

A CHANNELER - uses the typewriter/carriage return method

I am a wealth of useless factoids...

edited to add: I'm a rounder, myself.

I can just see the pick-up lines now....

<said with a lecherous tone of voice>

"Hey baby, do you channel or do you round?"

or

"you know what they say about those <name your religious or ethnic group> girls. They don't like to <round/channel>"

[hillvalley]

The pointy end is in my left hand, the part that was attached to the stalk in my right.

Right to left.

Either typewriter or round and round. It is not uncommon to switch mid stream. One row of kernals at a time, sometimes.

No butter or salt, unless its tasteless. Then a lot of butter and salt.

Ice Queen is my new favorite.

(By the way, corn is one of the messiest veggies to sell!)

[KatieLoeb]

"you know what they say about those <name your religious or ethnic group> girls. They don't like to <round/channel>"

I thought Monica Lewinsky had put that silly rumor to rest...

[jsolomon]

"you know what they say about those <name your religious or ethnic group> girls. They don't like to <round/channel>"

I thought Monica Lewinsky had put that silly rumor to rest...

When my running club had our annual Monica Lewinski Birthday Run on Saturday, we made sure ALL rumors were revived!

[sparrowgrass]

It is eating-over-the-sink time here on Sparrowgrass Hill.

Corn, of course, picked 5 minutes ago and dripping with butter--it is sweet enough to skip the butter, but. . . I eat it left to right, typewriter style. No ding--that is time wasted that would be better spent eating. And eat I do--sometimes only corn for dinner--5 or 6 ears.

Huge, sloppy, bacon and tomato sandwiches, oozing out of good home made bread. (From the bread machine, of course, who in their right mind would heat the kitchen up during a Missouri July?)

Peaches--my mom and I split a half bushel of clings the other day (clings are so much sweeter than freestones), and they have been growing riper and sweeter and softer by the second, til one bite sends juice down your chin and over your wrists and right onto the nice white shirt you donned to wear to work this morning, and so you have to change before you go back after lunch.

MMMMmmmmm.

[Suzanne F]

Butter? We don' need no stinkin' butter. When we have corn, like Sparrowgrass that's ALL we have (well, some salad with fresh leaves and tomatoes, of course, but that's all).

Just corn, de-silked, husks returned to their virgin positions, and the whole ears . . . nuked. Then I play Smith-Corona and HWOE is the platen.

Which brings up another possibly gender-related set of eating patterns: when eating, say, 2 tamales or 2 enchilada, do you eat all the way through one and then tackle the other (the lengthwise approach), or do you, um, rounder them???

[suzilightning]

I never thought about it before, but I eat from right to left, typewriter fashion, but moving up on the cob rather than down. Am I the only one who does this?

Jim

not at all- i eat right to left on my corn

course i also read all magazines/newspapers back to front too

[Squeat Mungry]

Actually, aside from the butter-elbows thing, I pretty much attack the cob at random. There is usually much snorting and back-of-hand chin-wiping. But I do get it all. I get all of it.

Squeat

[suzilightning]

Butter? We don' need no stinkin' butter. When we have corn, like Sparrowgrass that's ALL we have (well, some salad with fresh leaves and tomatoes, of course, but that's all).

Just corn, de-silked, husks returned to their virgin positions, and the whole ears . . . nuked. Then I play Smith-Corona and HWOE is the platen.

Which brings up another possibly gender-related set of eating patterns: when eating, say, 2 tamales or 2 enchilada, do you eat all the way through one and then tackle the other (the lengthwise approach), or do you, um, rounder them???

suzanne

don't de husk and de silk your corn

if you are going to zap it take two ears (ok - maybe 3) at a time a zap fully cloaked for 2 minutes per ear. let rest for two minutes total and you are able to stip away all the husk and silk in one motion and the corn is perfectly cooked and warm.

did a dozen jersey ears this way this weekend

[Ninjai Fanatic]

i usually eat 3 rows at a time.. :)

[MT-Tarragon]

I never thought about it before, but I eat from right to left, typewriter fashion, but moving up on the cob rather than down.  Am I the only one who does this?

Jim

←

Well, I go left to right, but I, also, move up rather than down. I think because I get stuff between my bottom teeth if I move down, but not if I go up.

I also hereby confess to being a secret roll-the-hot-corn-on-the-entire-butter-stick-er.

[aliwaks]

i take a bite at one end then ,,,, slowly pull some of the kernals up then in the elusive type wrighter style taught to me by the sholin monks, i slowly pull the kernals up row by row clean cob no fuzzies when im done .

←

Mee too!!! am quite obsessive about it one row at a time, can't look messy , sometimes I do twist kernel by kernel off with my fingers, but only if I'm having a conversation whilst eating

[ghostrider]

I am a rounder, always have been. My parents were channelers, I guess it was an early act of rebellion.

Until this thread arrived, I'd thought that I was the only rounder on the planet. Seriously. All of my friends think I'm weird.

They also think that I eat corn weirdly. But now I know that I'm not alone! Oh joy!

It's the magic of the Net.

[SobaAddict70]

Preferably with butter and a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash.

(or furikake if there isn't any Mrs. Dash)

Soba

[sassybat]

i take a bite at one end then ,,,, slowly pull some of the kernals up then in the elusive type wrighter style taught to me by the sholin monks, i slowly pull the kernals up row by row clean cob no fuzzies when im done .

←

i do the same thing too. i didn't even realize how cleanly i was eating the corn, or how entertaining it was for people to watch until one day my sisters and BIL stopped eating their corn in order to watch me.

[steverino]

I'm a "channeler", typically left to right, rotate down, repeat.

But I've also been known to go left to right, rotate down, right to left, repeat until all kernels are consumed.

In both cases, once all the kernels are consumed, there is a follow - up, much quicker, to make sure that all remnants of golden deliciousness are in my belly.

YUM.

Steve

[Octaveman]

I love corn on the cob. I usually hold the stem end in my right hand and move right to left. I'll eat about three rows at a time in true typewriter fashion. No holders. Don't see the point.

The only problem I have with eating COTC is competing with one of my cats for it. Rocky, an ebony ticked oriental shorthair, absolutely LOVES corn on the cob and munches on one end while I munch on the other. He always knows when we're having it and will do anything in his power to get to it. I have some pics of us sharing an ear of corn...funny as hell. His style is about chewing on the small end for a bit to soften then he goes straight for the kernals all around it. He doesn't care about being systematic...he just goes for it. If I try to pull it away, he sometimes growls at me. Most of the time though he's purring all through his feast.

Bob

[jgm]

Butter and salt, left to right, two to three rows at a time. The last two rows are left for the dog. While we hold the cob by its ends, the dog just plows in and delicately, with front teeth only, bites off whatever he can find, going back and forth to make sure he got it all.

We learned the hard way, to take the cobs out to the dumpster immediately, after the dog dug 3 cobs out of the trash and ate them. He has a habit of eating inedible things, but we just never thought he'd eat the cobs. $129.50 at the vet's office.

[jgarner53]

I tend to go back and forth, typewriter style, but only if you could type backwards on the line (why waste that movement?) Butter and salt occasionally, if the corn isn't heavenly enough by itself.

Husband is a rounder. Freak.

[snowangel]

Sparrowgrass, your post really hit a nerve. I won't be partaking of any of that for quite some time. We've had a cool and wet spring, so Paul reports that the sweet corn isn't even knee high (isn't the old adage up here that it should be knee high by the 4th of July?). Heck, my tomato plants are only a foot high.

Anyway, I'm insistent that the corn is very, very fresh, and the stand where Paul picks up corn knows my fetish. By the end of corn season, my family is about ready to kill, because I'm happy eating nothing but sweet corn for dinner for about a month.

I do acquiese and fix burgers or BLT's to placate the masses.

[cakewalk]

The only problem I have with eating COTC is competing with one of my cats for it.  Rocky, an ebony ticked oriental shorthair, absolutely LOVES corn on the cob and munches on one end while I munch on the other.  He always knows when we're having it and will do anything in his power to get to it.  I have some pics of us sharing an ear of corn...funny as hell.  His style is about chewing on the small end for a bit to soften then he goes straight for the kernals all around it.  He doesn't care about being systematic...he just goes for it.  If I try to pull it away, he sometimes growls at me.  Most of the time though he's purring all through his feast.

←

That has to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

[Milt]

I always eat left to right, down with holders and the stalk end must be in my left hand. I have been known to count the number of rows of kernels, so as to determine how many rows should be consumed at a time. It would be terrible to eat five rows at a time, and only have two left on the last pass. I could have eaten four rows at a time and it would have come out even. Sick - is how some of those near and dear to me describe this and other characteristics of mind. I eat corn with butter only - never tried or felt the need for salt or pepper.

[rooftop1000]

I attack a random row about three high left to right so I have room to delicately nibble each kernal off the next rows with my bottom teeth only also left to right

malden sea salt no butter

nuked naked or soak, grill then husk

husband rubs it in the stick of butter

tracey

[Jinmyo]

I never serve or eat corn on the cob.

I slice the kernels off to pan roast or somesuch and use the cobs for a stock to make a sauce.

Don't like messy food though I am in favour or hands being used to eat many things. But not rice or pasta and not corn.