Get Your Grill On

This time of year brings us lots of good stuff in the Midwest.  Tomatoes are still ripe and coming off the vine to make BLTs.  Blackberries are fresh and full of sweetness and good flavor.  Soybeans are… well, there are soybeans.

And there’s sweet corn!  One of the great gifts of the waning summer.  In the words of Heywood Banks, from a trip through Iowa:

  “Interstate 80 Iowa”

This way I attribute to Steven Raichlen, though I don’t remember which book.  I think it was BBQ USA, though.

Cutting off just the tip of the corn including the tassle, soak the ears in sugar water for 6-8 hours (maybe 1/2 cup of sugar per gallon of water).  Get a chimney of coals good and hot, and spread evenly in the bottom of your grill.  Wearing protective gloves and wielding a good set of tongs, place the ears of corn right in the coals, turning about every 2 minutes.  The husks will turn black, but that’s ok.

Remove the ears, pull back the husks, then do the obligatory butter slather, add salt, enjoy.  It’s simple; you just have to plan enough time to soak the corn!  The actual cooking only takes about 8 minutes.

What happens is that the corn basically steams in the husk, but, by cutting off the end, some good grill flavor gets in there, too.  This is currently my wife’s preferred corn eating method.  Pulling back the husk and grilling right on the grate is a no-no with her, as it tends to make the corn dry out and stick to the teeth.

Try it, then let me know how you like it.  Or, if you have another way of fixing fresh corn on the cob, let me know!