Sweet corn was worth waiting for, as ever. The August heat will mellow into golden September and then October, with the first hint of frost, while we still munch the honeyed kernels. Then the loving memory will sustain us for the rest of the year. “Two for twenty-nines” from Florida in March are about as appealing as instant mashed potatoes or frozen fish sticks.
This reverence for freshly picked, locally grown corn is not a matter of rural snobbery. The sweetness of corn is fragile, evanescent. As soon as an ear has been picked, the sugars begin to turn to starch, the flavor palls. Corn is Cinderella as midnight approaches.
Super double, triple and quadruple-sweet hybrids are the goal at agricultural research centers in an effort to prolong the magic and recapture for the urban millions the real taste of fresh corn. Wish them the best. In the meantime, enjoy the best.
Prehistoric Crop
Sweet corn is a relatively recent development altogether in a vegetable whose history predates history with fascinating archeological and anthropological ramifications. Corn was one of the first crops cultivated in Central America and gradually became an essential part of Indian ritual and nourishment in all the Americas. It was the sturdy field corn, still the major crop, ground into meal, refined into syrup, starch, or oil or, finally, fed to livestock.
Some Indians of the American Northeast cultivated special sweet or green corn crops exclusively for cerem onial purposes. In th e 19th century, as wheat began to replace corn as the staple grain, increasing attention was paid to sweet corn. Today, a majority of Americans may be unaware that there is another kind, just as a majority may never sample truly fresh sweet corn.
For the next three months, it is everywhere in the vicinity. Trucks which appear in the morning with hand-lettered signs are gone by noon when they have sold out. Mobile farm stands. They compete with established stands and markets.
More Than a Nickel
Off the trucks and at many stands the price is 90 cents or a dollar a dozen. You may be charged up to $1.50 a dozen elsewhere. Prices can be expected to edge downward as the harvest gathers momentum but the old nickel an ear days are gone.
Treat tender corn with care. Don’t strip the ears before you buy and spoil them for someone else. If you want white corn or the yellow and white mixed, go to the Green Thumb or the Farmer’s Market where they specialize. Buy on a day to day basis. Three to five minutes in boiling water is all it takes.
Other methods of preparation, equally successful, call for placing the corn in boiling water, covering it, turning off the heat, and keeping it up to 30 minutes. Un-shucked ears may also be boiled, placing a greater burden on the diner. Or they can be soaked in cold water and then tucked among the coals of an outdoor fire for about 45 minutes. They may be wrapped in foil first, if you wish. Any leftovers should be recycled. Try a soufflé with definite spoon bread overtones or a rich chowder.
Double Corn Souffle
1 cup milk
1/3 cup yellow corn meal
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp. sugar
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups cooked corn kernels
5 egg whites
Butter an eight-cup souffle dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scald milk. Pour over cornmeal in a mix ing bowl and stir vigorously until cornmeal is softened, thickened and smooth. Stir in salt and sugar. Allow to cool to lukewarm.
Beat in egg yolks. Stir in corn. Beat egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff. Stir one-fourth of the egg whites into the corn mixture. Gently fold in the rest. Pour into prepared dish and place in oven. Lower heat to 375 degrees and bake until puffed and golden brown, about 25 minutes. Serve at once.
Serves six.
Summer Corn Chowder
1/2 cup finely diced salt pork
Water
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup finely diced potato
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced red pepper
1 cup diced summer squash or zucchini
2 cups vegetable stock (such as the water from boiling corn) or water
1 cup milk
2 cups corn kernels (cooked or uncooked)
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 cup pepper
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
In a heavy pot, cover salt pork with water and simmer until water has evaporated and pork is brown and crisp. Remove pork pieces and reserve. Add onion and potato to fat remaining in pot. Cover and cook over low heat until potato is tender but not brown, about ten minutes. Mash mixture in pot with a fork or potato masher.
Add celery, peppers, and squash and cook, stirring, over low heat for five minutes. Add stock and salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Scald milk and add, along with cumin, pepper and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about ten minutes. Stir in reserved salt pork. Taste and add another dash of salt, if desired. Off heat, stir in cream and serve,
Serves six.
