Whether cooked or raw, it's safest to break the ear of corn in half so that there is one flat side to rest on the cutting board. If it breaks at an angle, it's very simple to knock off a few kernels to even it out. Unless you have pledged no grazing, just pop these tasty bits in your mouth. Stand the ear half on end, flat side down, and carefully cut off the kernels. Keep turning it around until all the kernels are cut off.If you look closely at your naked ear, you'll see little yellow spots dotting the sides. This is the germ portion of the corn kernel and full of tasty nutritious goodness.
To remove these, flip your knife over and use the dull back to scrape off the germs. Add these to your corn kernels and proceed with the recipe. Another option is to skip the scraping and just nibble the germs off with your teeth....again, assuming you don't mind being a grazer.
Now that you've got those cobs nice and clean, don't compost them yet. Toss them in the stockpot with other vegetable trimmings to make a great vegetable stock. This has been another cooking lesson with Chile.
This year was the first year I cut corn off the cob (I used it for soup). How crazy is it that I'd never done that before. If I needed corn, I bought a can. Ugh. Of course, once I did it, I wanted to stock up for winter - maybe freeze some. Then I found out our corn season is over. Dagnabit! I'll be prepared next year!
ReplyDeleteOut in hill-billy-ville where I used to live (I know, I know, that's big secret I don't normally tell people) my grandmother used to make stock with these - just like the uber-cook Chile. Then - once cool of course - she would toss the cobs to the dogs as doggie treats! They loved all the stock flavor and would chew on them forever. Much safer than bones. Not that she didn't give them those too, after all, these were farm dogs... Their bellies were like steel traps!
ReplyDeleteA little online research indicates the corn cobs can cause partial or complete obstruction of a dog's digestive tracts. Glad I looked because I was ready to toss one to Angel! Guess your grandmother's dogs were tough cookies.
ReplyDeleteOh, Gran was depression era. Dogs ate the people leftovers - no matter what it was. She didn't see much need for store bought dog food. I picked up a lot of good habits from her (she really was sustainable and green way before her time) and some bad habits! Like feeding the dogs table scraps!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that about the corn cobs, good thing you checked first! Amazing her dogs lived until old, old ages! I would never have guessed the cobs were dangerous!
One year we put up quart bags of sweet corn for freezing. My husband took a cutting board and put a long sturdy nail through the middle then turned the board over. Voila! A holder for a hot, blanched ear of corn. Just put the corn lengthwise on the nail and cut off the kernels.
ReplyDeleteGreat cob removal tutorial... Very useful for the young and the old... both who have trouble getting their corn off the cobs:)~ I don't know about dog digestion... but I do know that three year olds love to gnaw at corn on the cob... even though they eat much more off the cob...
ReplyDeleteshellys.hut@gmail.com
Again I wouldn't have thought to add the cob to veg stock. Its an excellent tip.
ReplyDeleteAnd you know the step about cutting it in half is exactly the sort of thing I need to hear. Because guess who tried to de-bone corn without cutting it so that one end was flat?
Susan - good point. If you have a large crop of corn, that would definitely be worth doing. Makes me wish I'd kept the old cutting board.
ReplyDeleteBeany - I did include corn cobs in the previous stock post. Are you saying you don't read and memorize every word I write? I'm sooo offended. LOL (I'd actually be worried if you hung on every word I wrote. I may have good ideas but I ain't no guru.) And how do you think I come up with these ideas in the first place? Yep, trying to debone corn the hard way first. The only advantage to that is slicing my finger so I can get out of washing dishes for a few days. ;-)
Thanks for the lesson, I actually did not know how to "debone" corn. Good idea reusing the corn cob too for stock. I learn so much from you awesome bloggers!
ReplyDeleteI usually leave the ear whole and work my way along the long side, cutting it out row by row with a long knife. That way I can break off more of the corn and the kernels are mostly whole.
ReplyDeleteMy cats have all liked corn. One kitty would pull corn cobs out of the trash and chew off the pointy end, sometimes swallowing it. The current whippersnappers just chew and don't bite chunks off, fortunately.
LOL Eco-burban mom used to live in Hill-billy-ville. I'm gonna tell! I'm gonna tell!LOL
ReplyDeletethanks chile- I have always known how to do this, but never do as corn on the cob gets eaten here
Um, since I still live in hill-billy-ville, our dogs eat corn cobs. And husks... they actually really like them. Actually, our farm dogs eat everything... Including varmits.
ReplyDeleteAnyway... I wanted to comment that my grandmother has a nifty contraption, it looks like a board with an indentation and a blade in it. You slide the corn along the indentation and the blade cuts the kernals right off. It works really well and fast, especially if you're planning to freeze corn and are doing a lot. I don't know the name of it, though.
Also, I saw someone on the food network (maybe Paula Deen?) balancing the ear of corn on the center hole of a bundt pan, so the kernals fell into the pan instead of going all over. Although I must say it looked precarious and a little dangerous.
And last- I make corncob soup. It's like corn chowder... I make a stock with just cobs, then add potatoes, the corn that was cut off the cobs, and some red pepper. It's really good.
My daughter cringes when I pop raw potatoes into my mouth when I am chopping them for dinner. Pffft, what does she know.
ReplyDeleteI love raw food and when I am recovered from my upcoming surgery, I plan on attendning some raw food classes. I am not saying that I will give up cooking, but I believe that more raw food is a much better way to consume food.
*And yes de-cobbing is a word, for you made it up*
Very good lesson. I wanted to make and freeze a ton of corn chowder a couple of years ago and bought a contraption that promised to make this process easy... but I could never get it to work. A knife ended up working just fine. Why do I sometimes spend money on weird things like that?
ReplyDeleteYou've made me hungry for corn but I don't think anyone around here has any yet. I want some now.
Before I moved to Ireland I took in a trained hunting dog, then I gave a home to an abandonned untrained doggy. After Tig had finished with HIS shoshi (rabbit ~ the only time he ever refused to let the girly have first food), he tried to teach her how to hunt & kill a shoshi using the remains he'd saved for her. She in turn taught him all the intricasies of corn cob hunting, stalking & killing & they loved the time I spent with them in the field of harvested fodder maize, gleaning stray cobs. I never got a photo, but I have clear images in my mind of Tashka throwing cobs in the air to catch them.
ReplyDeleteI had to teach the chickens about corn cobs, too & would sit, shelling my finds on the back step, often with a fat, fluffy cochin in my lap, eating the shelled corn as soon as it came off ~ they learnt in the end
I think I've seen a few contraptions and gadgets for getting the kernels off corn. One of my goals is to minimize the numbers of special purpose items in my kitchen. Believe me, I've had the kitchen overflowing with all kinds of extra stuff. Now I'm trying to pare down to as little as possible.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should off the corn cobs to my friends' cats? Naw, I'll just stock 'em and compost 'em. Nope, won't be trying the corncob substitute for TP or cloth wipes here, either. =:-O
Corn cob hunting - priceless!