An absolutely delicious 50c lunch

"without a doubt one of the most difficult foods to eat gracefully." Lillian Eichler Watson

But there was no-one to see so no problem - mind you not only is it difficult to eat elegantly, it is also difficult to eat without getting lots of fibre stuck in your teeth. You need a toothpick afterwards.

I don't think I have eaten corn on the cob for years. But today, on a whim, I thought I would give it a go. For my lunch. It's a sunny day and so, appropriate to eat corn on the cob in the garden. And it's really simple to cook without any serious washing up. Why did I decide to do this? Well the other day I bought some corn - it worked out at 50c a cob, hence the title of this post. But I had to get four cobs and really they should be eaten fresh. Bert Greene quotes an old New England adage - "You may stroll to the garden to cut the corn but you had darn well better run back to the kitchen to cook it!" He goes on to say, " As soon as the corn's cob is cut, natural sugar in the corn's kernel starts to convert to starch. Consequently the longer the cut corn sits, the mealier each bite will be." Well mine are well past fresh but they were still fresh enough to contain 'milk' in each kernel. I don't have the words to describe the taste sensation. Corn is like nothing else really - sweet I suppose. Absolutely delicious in spite of the inelegance and actually it wasn't too messy. I did grow some once - in my Donvale vegetable garden, though I don't think I got very many.

"It is not elegant to gnaw Indian corn. The kernels should be scored with a knife, scraped off onto the plate, and then eaten with a fork. Ladies should be particularly careful how they manage so ticklish a dainty, lest the exhibition rub off a little desirable romance." Charles Day, Hints on Etiquette, 1844

I just picked mine up in my fingers and gnawed at it. But then there was no-one to see. And actually I think I might have made more of a mess scraping of the kernels and then trying to spear them with a fork.

It wasn't always delicious for me though. In fact I never had any until my epic American journey in 1962 with my university friend Carole. We went all around America - well mostly around the outside, and everywhere we went and were entertained by the truly hospitable Americans we were fed corn on the cob. I wasn't that keen to be honest - apart from the fibre in the teeth and trying to eat it elegantly, the taste was not to my liking. It's quite a strong taste - not one you can ignore. But I had to eat it - I was the guest. And you know, by the end of the trip I was adapting to it. These days I really rather like corn and buy it often. But mostly I use it to make soup or to flavour other dishes, put it in quiche or make muffins and things. I hadn't had corn on the cob for an awful long time.

The method I chose was to boil it, because in my head I had that Bert Greene (my go to American) recommended this. A little sugar in the water I seemed to remember and no salt. I had it partly right. Actually Bert Greene recommends roasting it - butter it, dip it in water and wrap in foil - cook for 20 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade. It was the American Heritage Cookbook that recommended boiling. Which I did - for 5 minutes. Some recipes say that once you have put the corn into the boiling water you cover it, and leave it to stand for 5 minutes, some say 10. Again - lots of variety.

Then I started to research this article and apart from finding that Bert Greene recommended the roasting method, others agreed.

"Never boil corn because you'll discard many of its healthy nutrients with the cooking water. Instead, leave it in the husk and cook for three to four minutes per ear in the microwave." Huffington Post

So there's another method - in the microwave. And we're off. Just like the boiled eggs, there seem to be a thousand ways of cooking corn on the cob. Just one ingredient - there were mostly not any extra ones unless you count a little bit of butter and sugar. Well you can boil it in half and half water and milk. You can also roast it or grill it - in the oven or on a barbecue. The basic method is the same and seems to involve soaking the corn in water first and then wrapping it in the husk, or some foil. Mind you I think I have seen lots of recipes where you simply cook it on the barbecue with no husk - though I think you soak it in water first.

“Shucked and boiled in water, sweet corn is edible and nutritious; roasted in the husk in the hottest possible oven for forty minutes, shucked at the table, and buttered and salted, nothing else, it is ambrosia. No chef's ingenuity and imagination have ever created a finer dish.” Rex Stout

What you must do though is serve it slathered in butter:

"Butter it must have, plenty of it, to bathe the yellow grains and dribble down one's chin as one chews away." Edward Bunyard, 1937

With salt and pepper too. And then you can go to town and put other stuff on it - chilli, lime juice, other spices.

My boiled corn was slathered with butter and salt and pepper. Gorgeous. This might become a regular lunch item to vary from the sardines on toast, cheese on fresh bread or a sort of tomato bruschetta that I usually have. Oh and it only has 77 calories! So I could even have it on one of my fasting days, though I should probably go easy on the butter. And if you're worried about losing good stuff into the water, keep the water when you strain it and use it in soups and things.

The Europeans don't seem to go for corn on the cob, though they use corn as a grain - think polenta, and the English are not that rapt. The Australians seem to like it though -- well I always think we are as influenced by America as by our former masters the English. More so in fact. And guess what - The Australians will put tomato sauce on it! It's quite trendy to barbecue it though. Nevertheless I was surprised at how many of my cookbook authors more or less ignore it unless they are talking about soup or fritters. So cheers for Beverley Sutherland Smith who has several pages of very tempting things including a rundown of all the different methods of cooking corn on the cob - though she doesn't mention the microwave.

Felicity Cloake does not have a How to cook the perfect corn on the cob page.