It's Hear!

It’s that time again. Corn is finally back on the table for the season. In our house, it takes weeks before everyone is sated on the simplest and most delicious method of getting it into the mouth, that is, on the cob quickly boiled and butter-soaked. There are the usual culinary debates about the number of minutes it should roil around in the hot water. The general rule is 7 to 10 minutes, but 8 minutes produces such perfection as to not be worth another discussion.

Corn, called maize by Native Americans, is native to Mexican. However, it had migrated to Connecticut before the arrival of the pilgrims. The pilgrims considered it as a type of grain, like the cereal crops of wheat, barley, oats or rye. Which resulted in them calling it by the common term for all European grain, corn. Today it is a staple crop all across the world. Somewhere along the line, the English brought in John Barleycorn and his knowhow for producing alcoholic beverages. Thus, we have un-aged corn licker or liquor, as you choose, which is uniquely American. As names will, it has acquired a number of AKAs, such as moonshine, white lightening and corn whiskey.

Who doesn’t like to celebrate? Nobody I know. And Americans particularly love to celebrate their corn. The United States hosts almost as many Corn Festivals during August and September as there are corn-growing counties. Each one has its own contest specialty: corn-eating, corn-shucking, and corn-pitching to cite a few. As you might expect, there are corn costumes and corny jokes in abundance.

Perhaps the Mitchell, South Dakota wins the corn celebration prize with its magnificent Corn Palace. Originally built for an exposition in 1892, it has been rebuilt many times. It now sports Moorish minarets and Russian onion domes. Interestingly, the building’s exterior murals are composed of naturally colored corn kernels and cobs and are renewed annually, Each year a new corn theme is selected and artist compete for the winning design. These days the Corn Palace hosts everything from agricultural events to popular concerts.

​Our website is overflowing with corn recipes. Once you’ve had your appetite’s filled of those lovely, slippery buttered corn on the cob, check out a few other ideas including a couple of Chilled Corn Soups, Sweet Corn Relish, Corn Tomato Salsa, Corn & Chive Fritters, and Wild Rice and Corn Salad. And don’t forget to freeze a few bagsful for a midwinter reminder, here’s a link to an easy process: https://www.allrecipes.com/video/4067/how-to-freeze-corn/. Today’s featured recipe has us turning to the grill and to corn’s Mexican origins to produce Grill Roasted Spicy Corn,