How Do You Eat Corn on the Cob (and discussion re: food-related quirks)?
Had corn on the cob for dinner last night and we launched in to a conversation re: whether you eat your corn on the cob by going around the cob or across the cob.
My wife and I are "around" people; my dad is an "across." What say you?
On a related note, I am unfortunately a life-long picky and quirky eater. Went thru about a one-year period when I was young when the only thing I would eat was cottage cheese. #shrug
I've tried to broaden my horizons to the point where I'm not a total anchor at a dinner party, but still retain a few eating quirks...
***If presented with a plate of food that consists of multiple items, I typically eat each item to completion before moving on to the next item. So, if I have a steak, vegetable and a starch, I'll generally eat the vegetable first, then the starch, then the steak. It just seems odd to me to take one bite of steak...then a bit of the starch...and then another bite of steak...etc.
***On a related note, there are some items of food that I prefer not to be touching one another. I love Middle Eastern food, and one of our favorite carryout spots (Falafel King, on Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak) packs the food in take-out containers that have multiple compartments. Often times, the dressing on the salad will spill over in to the rice or chicken compartments; I'll still eat it but it's not my preference. If I remember, I will ask them (nicely) to put the salad in a different container.
***I hate peas but love the chicken noodle soup from Zoup, which contains peas. It takes me quite a while to consume the soup...as I carefully pick out all of the peas. I am also expert at extricating mushrooms when confronted with something that I would otherwise enjoy eating.
Can anyone relate to any of this? How do you eat your corn on the cob? Feel free to make this in to a Memorial Day barbecuing thread, if you'd like.
Commence the comments or the snarky remarks, if you prefer.
Across, return, across- like a typewriter. Around is ridiculous. Do you also sit on the toilet sideways?
-Just teasing. But across, with lime crema, Tajin and a sprinkle of cotija is the proper procedure.
with my mouth, usually
Across.
The real question is... do you wipe sitting down or standing up?
Around or across?
The real...real question is...is there corn in your ??
Definitely standing up. You don't want a case of swamp ass and smell like ass all day. Or just jump into the shower (what I did during the TP shortage in March), problem solved.
Back and forth typewriter style. We also microwave corn on the cob. There are instructions on YouTube but it’s real easy. Pops right out of the husk with no little fibers. Fast and easy. No boiling. Basically you are steaming the corn.
Definitely across from end to end. A little butter with salt and pepper. I love to grill corn on the cob. Fill up a 5 gallon bucket with water and soak the ears for at least 2-3 hours. Put them on the grill on low heat, turning a quarter turn every 5-6 minutes. After grilling all 4 sides, set off to the side away from heat, then start cooking your meat. When your meat is done, remove ears making sure you wear a heavy pair of gloves and pull back the husk. Another way to steam the corn. Tastes delicious.
Next time you grill it try brushing on some sticky sweet barbecue sauce (your choice) about 2 minutes before you pull them off.
Thank me later.
Oil, salt and high heat, no husk. Corn doesn’t need to be cooked, so just long enough to get that nice char. Brining just waterlogs it and cooking in husk prevents that nice char.
Yeah we do em on the grill in the husk. works well.
'Around' btw. My family is split on this issue.
I think this is an excellent OT post, OP.
Unlike you, I do corn "typewriter style" (across) as someone else noted. Side note: There aren't many things funnier than watching a cat eat corn on the cob.
Like you, I eat dishes to completion before moving on to the next one. I've been that way since I was a little kid.
I also prefer tight compartmentalization. Related, I generally prefer low-viscosity food. I dislike it when sauces are overly runny. Picture a bunch of chickpeas swimming in cheap oil at an Indian buffet or Chinese takeout where the "sauce" for the main dish runs into everything else.
I don’t generally eat one dish to completion before moving to the next. The exception to this is French fries. I will eat just the fries while they are hot. Once they’ve cooled down, I eat the whole cheeseburger before moving back to the residual fries.
The late Phil Hartman’s Anal Retentive Chef would have a field day with this post.
Yes to the Anal Retentive Chef!
My wife and I joke that I am the real-life incarnation of him.
I do like to cook, but I tend to clean up whatever dishes, utensils, measuring items, etc. as I cook. I also like to maintain a clean table throughout a meal...so I'm constantly getting up to clear things, wipe up messes, etc.
I am also very particular about how the dishwasher is loaded!
Yes, it's a bit bat-shit crazy. But, as they say, recognizing the problem is 90% of the battle!
I think I share your psychosis. My mom would get every pot, pan, measuring spoon, prep bowl, etc. dirty while cooking. Clean up afterwards was a major job and I always got drafted to clean up the mess. I think this left me emotionally scarred, so I do the opposite.
Not crazy, mild case of OCD is all. I do all the same stuff. Constantly cleaning while cooking (so it's not a huge damn mess when we are done, right?), rearranging the dishwasher because someone else had a different vision of what is "in order".
I'm the total opposite. I sample things roughly in a cycle. One bite of A, one of B, etc. I'm not anal about it though. And of course I give priority to hot things over things that are cold. So if I had a steak and potato salad I'm not going to do it half half. More like 80 20 probably.
Yeah, I agree. Cats love corn on the cob.
Across. And that's after I butter up a slice of bread and use it as a half-pipe to roll the cob around 360 to get buttered up. Then seasoned salt on it and I'm ready to go.
I didn't know people ate it any way than "typewriter style." No wonder the world is such a fiasco.
FWIW, my dad eats tacos top-down, like a pita sandwich.
FWIW, my dad eats tacos top-down, like a pita sandwich.
It's funny (to me) that you pint out your dad eats tacos top down as if that's abnormal. But then you say "like a pita sandwich" - as if that's how a pita sandwich should be eaten!?
Seems to me a pita and taco essentially food cousins different cultures. I'm surprised you wouldn't eat both the same way!?
Typewriter. Also love eating multiple things together like mashed potatoes with corn and gravy on top. You would think I’m the devil.
I have to eat turkey covered in cranberry sauce. Plain turkey is too blah for me.
I am not totatlly opposed to sauces and gravy. And I do like stir-fry, rice bowls, salads and other dishes that lend themselves to the items being mixed together.
The quirks are very situational, I guess. It's what makes them quirks!
Typewriter, but with nothing on it. Years ago I got the "cut down on your sodium intake" talk from the doctor, so I stopped automatically adding salt to everything. When I did, I was amazed at the actual taste of the food. Now I eat it with nothing, and enjoy both the taste and the strange looks I get from the "butter & salt" crowd.
And mashed potatoes are a godsend. When I was a kid and Mom was always bugging me to "clean your plate or you won't get any dessert," I learned that mashed potatoes are a natural adhesive. They would stick to any of the more "mobile" vegetable (corn or peas) and make them easier to eat. They would also help mask the taste of the less desirable veggies, like lima beans.
Clean plate = happy mother. I never missed dessert.
Mashed potatoes, corn, and Frank's Red Hot mixed together is the most comforting of comfort foods.
I've done this with leftover mashed, corn, and barbecue sauce. Sweet Baby Ray's is preferable.
Sweet Baby Rays is one of the worst BBQ sauces of all time.
Im across, then around, but always cooked in the husk, double wrapped in foil, next to the hottest coals for 45 minutes at a minimum, turning once.
I don't eat corn very often.
But when I do, it's "around".
Stay hungry, my corn-eating friends.
Are you from Iowa or Nebraska?
Just wondering...
I just use a knife and cut it after it is cooked into a bowl. Mix in butter and what ever seasoning I want and eat it that way. I no longer get that butter residue in my nose!
Update: I pressure cooked some corn. Cut it off the ear. Added butter, a mango habanero seasoning powder, a pinch of some salt, and freshly cracked pepper.
How was it you ask?
DEEEEEEEEEEEELicious.
I am in the "around" camp. Go blue. I'm pretty omniverous, some foods are naturally better together. Nothing bothers me on that front. Liver and onions I'd prefer death by Covid.
My wife will NOT eat an onion and can detect a flake on a big Mac...yet loves french onion soup and onion rings...won't eat a "toxic" tomato but loves BLT And classic club sandwiches...boggles the mind.
I always cut the corn off the cob first, and before you call me a wuss, I have a good reason for it: the tooth next to my front tooth is slightly loose and has been for 15 years. Nothing happened to it; it's just genetics and bad roots. So in order to preserve it, I rarely bite out of anything hard, like an apple or a baguette. If I lose the tooth, I have to get an implant, which I really don't want.
As for weird food habits, I don't have any. My son, however, is not only a picky eater but he will never take the last of anything. If there are cookies, he'll never eat the last one. He always leaves a bite of food on his plate, even if it's a steak or burger, which he loves. If you ask him to eat it, he says no, but will then go eat something else. Makes no sense.
This.
I always slice it off with a steak knife. You can put way more on the plate this way, also.
My late cat did the same thing - never ate any food to completion. He had a voracious appetite, but always left a little bit in the dish. My girlfriend theorized that, because he was a stray while growing up, he'd learned to save some food for later, in case it was a long time before he saw any again.
Of course, I'll assume your son isn't a stray, so that blows this theory out of the water.
Wait, people actually don't eat corn on the cob like a typewriter? Who are these heathens?
Literally, the only food I don't like and won't eat is Cole Slaw, the devil's cabbage.
Big fan of the devil's lettuce, though.
I'm a heathen rounder AND I love cole slaw.
Across.
I husk the corn, slap on some butter, salt and pepper. Wrap in tin foil and throw them on the grill. Done in 12-15 minutes, turning 1/4 turn every 3-4 minutes. Delicious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btZi6EiIXbY
This could be the best corn eating scene of all time.
Neither.
Typewriter style, rolling the cob toward me. Butter and salt most times. Sometimes Old Bay.
Years ago when I first met my wife and we were at her family cottage for Memorial Day weekend, they served corn on the cob with burgers and potato salad. My family never made potato salad and my wife's whole family freaked when I told them I had never tasted potato salad. I remember that weekend to this day, as I felt like Gaylord Fokker trying to fit in. It took me several years to enter their circle of trust.
I was in my 40's before I realized I always pepper my corn, but if it's on the cob, I salt it.
I am a hybrid - I eat about 1/2 way across, rotate and do it again.
People eat corn going around the husk? This is infinitely more disturbing than some of the things I've read in those political/covid threads. I'm not sure at this point we can be friends. I'm going to have to find forgiveness in my heart for you....
And here I thought that we old folks would always stick together here on the blog.
we can. its not too late for you to repent from this heresy. what's next, you going to tell me you plow your fields counter-clockwise?
Not much field to plow on my 80 x 150 city lot!
I'll be sure to ask our mowers to mow clockwise, however.
On eating quirks, I love green pepper raw by it self. I also love it in Chinese stir fry or Mexican food. However, I do not ever put green pepper on pizza. Those tastes do not mix. It is worse than pineapple on pizza.