Best Fresh Corn

Who has delicious corn on the cob? I was in Sacramento and they gave me some fresh corn and OMG it was life-changing. Now, corn is ruined to me.

Do we have amazing corn out here?

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I’ve always been pleased w/ the white corn I get from Underwood Family Farms (Brentwood FM).

We tried using this method to cook the corn 1-2 wks ago for the first time, and it worked out very well:

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I don’t know why but it seems harder to get amazing corn out here even at farmers markets it will be pretty good but rarely great. Maybe it’s going to restaurants?

Maybe I should say that my grandfather grew yellow corn in his yard so that’s is preference over the super sweet white varieties

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I don’t think it’s quite season yet in CA.

In prior years I have loved the corn from Finley. And further south, it’s always great at Chino Farm.

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Might be early. Haven’t seen any decent corn in Berkeley yet this year.

Most farms grow supersweet or sugar-enhanced hybrids, which are sweet but to my palate lack corn flavor. The issue with heirloom varieties like Country Gentleman is that the sugar turns to starch a day or two after it’s picked, which farmers don’t like, but at least they taste like corn. There are also earlier hybrid varieties such as Silver Queen that have good corn flavor.

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Is this the place?

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Interesting, thanks for that! Felt my corn cooking wasn’t exactly optimized.

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Interesting approach. To summarize, microwave for two minutes, husk, bring a dutch oven of water to a boil, turn it off, drop in the corn, leave for ten minutes.

Usually I just husk it and steam it in our couscoussiere.

I fucking hate corn cooked in the microwave. The cob is painfully hot. I think it may accentuate the unpleasant lawn-clippings aroma of supersweet varieties.

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Yes, they all said it’ll be even better in August. I cannot believe it! It’s a noticeable difference.

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How long do you steam it for?

We bought our corn husked this time (hang head in shame), so we got to skip the really annoying parts.

Obviously everyone smells things differently, but I’m dying to know if what I normally eat is a supersweet variety (I assume it is, based on what you’ve mentioned previously) b/c I have never associated corn on the cob w/ lawn clippings (and really hate the smell of lawn clippings).

“Lawn clippings” is maybe exaggerating, but I’ve never tasted a grassy note in heirloom corn.

In past years, I’ve had some amazing corn from Finley Farms and John Givens Farms.

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We have had fabulous corn from Tapia Bros. this year. Great yellow peaches as well - the white not so much.
Tapia is serving grilled corn on most weekends this summer, but the piece I tried was way overcooked. Not recommended.

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@robert (the above).

I keep forgetting about them! Thanks for the reminder.

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Oh, I’ve also had great corn from Roots Organic Farm!

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I long ago read somewhere that corn doesn’t need to be cooked, just warmed. So I bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in the shucked corn, cover, remove from heat and let set for four minutes. Ready. I recently added some to some sauteed in butter morels and last night added to a wonderful tuna/avocado salad.

Some people think broccoli doesn’t need to be cooked, but I’d still rather not eat raw broccoli.

Technically you don’t have to cook vegetables to be not any longer raw - cell structures break down at ~84C - sous vide for vegetables is very good

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Per Dan in the America’s Test Kitchen video, you want to get to 150F to gel the starch inside, but to stay below 185F to avoid softening the pectin in the pericarp.

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I’d rather eat raw broccoli than cooked.