Before you buy it, ask when the corn was picked. You want fresh corn; and be sure to use it that day. From the moment corn is picked, its sugars begin to convert to starch. Three-day-old corn won’t deliver that enjoyable sweetness.
NOTE: Don’t pull back the husk and silk when buying corn. It usually doesn’t tell you anything and starts to dry out the corn, even if you plan to use it later that day. If you don’t buy that ear, you’re leaving it to dry out for the next person.
How To Cut Corn From The Cob
1. Remove the husk and stringy corn silk from the ears: Just pull down and yank them off. If you’re having problems removing the strings of silk, try a slightly damp paper towel with a downward motion.
2. Hold the ear upright in a medium or large bowl. With a large knife, cut downward along one side of the cob to remove the kernels, using a back-and-forth, saw-like motion. Take your time and cut as close to the cob as you can.
3. Rotate the cob and repeat until you’ve removed all the kernels. Use the leftover cobs to make corn stock—we’ll post the recipe as tomorrow’s Tip Of The Day.
If you think you’ll be removing corn from the cob on a regular basis, there are gadgets called corn cutters or shuckers that help people who don’t have great knife skills. The best one we’ve used is this Corn Zipper from Kuhn Rikon. It’s a curved blade that zips right down the curve of the cob and makes the job easy.
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