Sweet corn cooking customs

On August 4, it’s still 80 degrees at midnight, too hot to sleep inside.  I walk outside to join Buff the Cat, who is asleep on the glider.  Drowned fruit flies accumulate in the dregs of my wine glass; few mosquitoes are about.  The hum of my neighbor’s air conditioner keeps his house at a constant 72 degrees, but I forgo artificial cooling and settle into the comfort of soft pillows.  Buff and I stretch out side by side and surrender to the bliss of sleeping outside.

If heat, humidity, and hurricanes are the downside of August, an abundant stock of fresh food, especially sweet corn, is the upside.  People line up when the first ears appear at Saturday’s Market toward the end of July.  Those ears disappear within minutes.  Only the earliest shoppers get the first corn.  But by early August, Farmers Markets and farm stands have established a reliable supply.

Southern New Englanders cook their corn according to widely divergent local customs.  Some like to grill ears still in their husks, soaked first in a pal of water.  Others assign a reliable family expert to strip husks and carefully remove unwanted silk.  The best cooking method and proper amount of time to cook remain under debate.  

Personally, I prefer a shallow covered saute pan, minimal water and minimal cooking time.  I very briefly roll ears of shucked corn in a thin bath of boiling water.  The process warms the ears rather than cooks them.  Though melted butter is the preferred dressing, I don’t use it.  Butter clouds corn’s fresh taste and leaves an oily layer I find unpleasant.  For me, freshly ground salt and pepper suffice as flavorings.  Two, even three, ears of corn accompany breaded fillets of summer flounder, lemon mayonnaise, and pencil-thin green beans for a summer supper.