Garrison Keillor once said, “Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.” To which we add—especially when it’s slathered in lots of butter. Corn tastes like nature’s candy, but it loses 50 percent of its sugar in the first 24 hours after it’s picked, so start gorging yourself now on these dishes that handle the cherished kernels with care.
Dean Maupin hails the Silver Queen at C&O Restaurant with his white corn soup that gets a pile of sweet and spicy lump crab added to it.
Feast!’s summer salad proclaims the season with a plate of greens, sautéed corn, crispy bacon, Maytag blue cheese, and local tomatoes all drizzled with a pesto vinaigrette.
If you looking to get down and dirty with good old corn-on-the-cob, head to The Whiskey Jar, where it’s roasted with the husk left on as a handle. A roll in butter and a sprinkle of salt and it’s the perfect side to a blackened catfish sammy.
At Rapture, Louisiana-style poached and pickled shrimp sit atop a stack of fried green tomatoes that rest on a bed of corn remoulade that’s made with roasted corn scraped from the cob, mustard, mayonnaise, cayenne, garlic, and lemon juice.
Orzo’s melt-in-your-mouth chicken confit gets spiced up Moroccan-style then combined with chorizo, fresh corn, tomato, zucchini, and cilantro before it’s finished with sherry jus.
Enjoy corn for dessert at Palladio Restaurant where Chef Melissa Close-Hart pairs a peach and basil crisp with sweet corn gelato.
Ears to you
Styrofoam trays of shrink-wrapped, already-husked corn’s a sin, but so is peeling back every single husk, so how are you supposed to tell the good ones from the wormy ones?
- Dig towards the bottom of the pile where it’s the coolest.
- Check that the stalk ends of the ears aren’t dry and shriveled.
- Pick ears with tight, fresh, green husks and shiny, golden silk.
- If you do find worms, simply cut out the invaded area before cooking.
Name that cob-eatin’ style
Around the world: Around the ear in even columns
Typewriter: Horizontally across the cob, dinging at the end of each row
Kamikaze: Anywhere and everywhere