Comments on: Cabin Cooking Tips

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:55:21 +0000

But you have to take a bite of it while it is still on the stalk to eat the “freshest” corn in the world. (can’t get any fresher than still attached to the plant!)

I have done that with some foods that can be eaten while still attached to the plant, lettuce, apricots, peas, berries. But you have taken that to another level to do it with foods that require cooking.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:30:59 +0000

getting the fresh corn and the fresh lobster together at the same meal is trickier.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:30:54 +0000

Exactly! I’ve been known to husk the corn on the stalk and dip the ear, still attached, into the pot of water boiling on a propane burner. Of course, I’ve also been known to take a lobster directly from a trap pulled from 160 foot depth into a pot of boiling water after briefly checking that it is of size.

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 10:38:42 +0000

Corn today is very different than corn of 40 years ago. Then, you had to start the water boiling before you picked the corn and you had to run from the field to the pot. If you tripped, you had to start over.

There are enzymes that convert the sugars into starch. That is what happens in field corn, which you want because starches are more stable than sugars (for long term storage). Cooking denatures those enzymes.

By: scidogs

scidogs — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 05:47:12 +0000

just as a after thought,as a kid in the 50’s and from “out east” i recall corn on the cob as darker yellow and the cobs being long and not as fat as what i seen here now.

By: scidogs

scidogs — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 05:43:43 +0000

that wait for local,MN,corn is always hard.the stuff from Mexico arrives to wet our appetite.then Florida chimes in with “better but still not the real thing”.Iowa is just a grade above field corn,which i think they send us just out of spite.
and then the Real Thing!.melts in your mouth like butter at $1 a dozen,at some point they are tossing it off the back of trucks just to hold off the mobs.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:56:35 +0000

I agree. I thought I was the only one who knew the sugar trick. I suspect it only works, if it does work, if the kernels are a bit dry and will absorb some water. Really, to have enough sugar or salt to be tasted there would have to be a lot.

By: adelady

adelady — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 03:00:03 +0000

Salt in the water? !!! Never. Salt makes the kernels tough.

The only reason to put salt in the water is ye olde cook’s trick to ensure temperature – same as for pasta. If you want something, put the merest smidgen of sugar in the water. The kernels don’t toughen up. **Then** sprinkle salt (or salted butter) on the cob to eat.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:27:33 +0000

Oh, I put butter on things. I just stopped putting it on corn or table bread sometime during the last quarter of the 20th century. Today, I watch my relatives at dinner putting butter on the bread, then putting butter on the corn, and I’m enjoying the bread and the corn as much as they do but I’ve got 200 calories to spare.

By: James

James — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:07:18 +0000

Butter, in moderation, fits my diet just fine.