TIP: Corn Cobs

Recently, we went to a dinner party given by Fabe and Zippy Fox.  Zippy is a phenomenal cook: she's even been in the audience of an Iron Chef America episode. One among many delicious dishes with which she enticed our flagging summer appetites, was a fresh corn salad.  While we were talking about it, she mentioned something I vaguely remember my grandmother either talking about or doing, and that was scraping the corn cob with a spoon to get the corn "milk" after the sweet corn kernels were cut off.

Mr. T was intrigued, cooked some corn and asked me to cut the kernels off the cob.  I did that, and started to scrape the cobs with a spoon (the back of a knife also works well), and he said he would take care of the rest. He then proceeded to chomp all of the extra sweetness off the cobs, so we didn't really get to try corn milk.

I hear that some people make corn milk from the whole kernels, and maybe it's a personal preference whether to do this with raw or cooked corn.  Cut them off the cob, throw the whole mess in the food processor, then strain it so you get only the milk.  The leftover fiber and starch can be used in other recipes.

I suspect there may be some good nutrition hiding in those cobs.  We can eat them when they are very young.  If you think you haven't eaten one, think again -- back to the last Chinese takeout you consumed.  Chances are that baby corn was included somewhere in one of the dishes.  (Are there fields and fields of itty-bitty corn somewhere in China?)  There are also some interesting Indian recipes for baby corn, including quite a few curries.  Mmmm!  How about you folks in US corn-growing country?  Are there any baby corn recipes?

I also read about the "milk line".  When corn is new, the kernels are plump and full of moisture.  As corn stays in the field, the moisture ekes out slowly, the starch solidifies and kernels start to have dents in them.  Farmers can break the cobs and look for a milk line, or sign that the corn is dry enough to put in the silo.

To cut kernels off the corn, I like to break them in half, so there is a good flat base, and then cut the kernels off while the corn is sitting firmly on a cutting board.  Other people like to cut the tip off, grab the stalk end, and, pointing the tip into a bowl, start cutting toward the bowl.

We're going to try making corn cob soup stock by boiling the heck out of cobs after cutting the kernels off, and then using the stock for a cold potato soup with fresh corn kernels.  I'll let you know how it goes!  There's an article by Mark Bittman called "Don't Toss Out the Cobs".  (In case I have to remove the link, it's from The New York Times, August 23, 2000.)  Bittman is interested trying international flavors, but I just want to taste good old fashioned potato, milk, fresh corn -- and maybe even bacon -- just as they are.

Thanks, Zippy!  You can see, we're still talking about dinner!