All About Corn.

I've been away on vacation to the farm. I know "vacation" and "farm" are two words not often used in the same sentence together, but for this transplanted San Diegan, going back to the farm is a vacation indeed.

See what I mean? Vacation at its finest. Shooting sports, incredible views, and just chillaxin. I enjoy the farm even more now that I don't have a seemingly endless list of chores. I even got the chance to show off my cooking skills to my papa, who thoroughly enjoyed a concoction my sister and I came up with for stuffed peppers, breaded eggplant, and saucy green beans, all taken directly from my mama's large and overflowing garden. Maybe I'll share it with you if I can remember what we did.

So, the vacation is over. Back on topic.

Where I come from, corn is it. Especially in the late summer. It was on the table so often then that I feel all warm and sun-baked every time I make it. We were shucking bushels of it every day, straight out of the garden. Mom cooked it, canned it, bagged it, froze it, and prepped it in every other way possible for storage so we could have it all year round. Despite that, we were still giving bags of ears away to the "town folk" that didn't have space to grow their own. Corn is such a big deal in South Dakota that we have a palace decorated with murals made from it.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because, for something so ingrained in my way of life, I discovered recently that I've been doing it wrong all this time. Shocking, I know.

Now I'm not telling you there is only one way to cook an ear of corn. As with a lot of foods, there are as many ways of making it as there are people doing the cooking. What I am saying is that this is one way to get a great result every time.

And it's easy. Oh so easy. It's so ridiculously easy that I'm left wondering why I've been bothering with boiling it all this time.

Put it in the oven. If you've been doing it this way for years I'm sure you're having a good chuckle right now, but an oven isn't something we turned on in the summer in our non-air-conditioned farm house, so cut me some slack, k?

It's as simple as this: Preheat the oven to 350. Wet the husks of the ears of corn. You can soak if you're nervous about husks burning, but it's not necessary. The corn steams enough to keep the husks from drying out. Make sure you pull out any silks dangling out the top. The husks aren't a fire hazard at that temperature, but the silks are.

Throw those puppies in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Carefully pull the corn out of the oven and cut the butt off.


Now, there are two schools of thought on which direction to shuck the corn.

1) From the bottom (the end you just cut off). Many people say if you pull the corn out of the husks this way, you get almost no silks.

I don't find this to be true, but I'm willing to admit I might be doing it wrong.

I've been cooking corn wrong all this time, so who knows?



2) Peeling the husks off from the top.

This is what works for me.

Either way, be careful!

IT'S HOT! 

 That's really all there is to it, my friends. Enjoy!