It’s Fall in Colorado and other than football season, the best part is the availability of all the fresh homegrown vegetables & fruits. My favorite vegetable comes from an area of Colorado called Olathe on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and they grown the sweetest sweet corn you will ever taste. Supposedly the cool nights, fertile mountain valley soil and hot days draw the sugar from the stalks into the ears of corn. Whatever is the reason, I can tell you that they are the best tasting and sweetest corn you will ever eat.
The big chain grocery stores in Colorado carry this corn so all of us who don’t live close to Olathe can enjoy this wonderful vegetable. Today I went over to a store close to my house to pick up some Olathe sweet corn for a Labor Day barbeque I am going to have. It’s a standing tradition in my family to have smoked barbecued ribs, potato salad, baked beans and Olathe sweet corn on Labor Day.
Anyway, as I approached the display that held the Olathe sweet corn I noticed there was a trash container next to the display and there were two ladies shucking the corn and putting them in plastic bags. I’m sure these ladies didn’t know but the quickest way to ruin good corn is to shuck it long before you steam, back or throw it on the grill. I wanted to yell “Stop it, you’re ruining your corn”!
The sugar in sweet corn is very fragile. It can quickly turn to starch. If you have ever had frozen corn on the cob you know what I mean. It gets very chewy and thick and doesn’t taste anything like fresh corn. This is because the sugar in the corn has turned to starch.
If you want your sweet corn to taste the best you should never shuck it until right before you are ready to cook it. In a short time after shucking, the corn will start to dry out. During this process the sweet water in the kernels will start to evaporate and condense the sugar content. The sugar in turn will start being converted to starch. The longer you wait the starchier the ear of corn will become until all that’s left is a very chewy, less sweet kernel that is similar to the frozen corn on the cob you purchase in the winter months.
To get the best taste from your corn on the cob the corn should be shucked and Steamed fresh corn is as good as it gets. If you don’t have a steamer, then boiling will work. Grilling is OK but not as good as steamed but you should wrap the ears of corn in tin foil before setting on the grill. Grilling the corn without the tin foil is like shucking it a day before cooking. You are going to lose the sweetness and gain the starch. You can regain some of the sweetness back by boiling in sugar water but you will still be left with a load of starch.
Don’t take my word for it, give it a try. Take good sweet corn, shuck it and immediately put it in the steamer. It won’t get any better than that.
