Are You A Shucker?

[Rick-o]

I'm talking sweet corn. Time for a grocery store pet peeve/rant. :biggrin:

Can you explain this behavior? I've noticed this quite often, where you see people grabbing ear after ear furiously shucking a bit off the top to, I guess, check for quality? Can you really tell if it's a good ear or bad by ripping open the top? Doesn't this dry up the ears for the next person wanting corn?

To me, produce is a gamble. If the stuff is suspect, I may grab a few extra ears. For crying out loud, it's only 10-20 cents an ear!!

An old farmer once told me the best time to pick corn is 15 minutes before you sit down to eat. Now that's FRESH!! The next best thing is to keep the corn unshucked until ready to cook, IMO.

(Yeah, we're having corn on the cob today)

[OWC Jamie]

corn was 5 for $2 here for a bit.
The tortoise eats 3 ears a day

[3d]

Where are you that corn is 10-20 cents an ear? I'm typically seeing 5/$2 here in NY all summer long.

[Paul F.]

3d wrote:
Where are you that corn is 10-20 cents an ear? I'm typically seeing 5/$2 here in NY all summer long.

Dude.. you're in NY... some of us live a lot closer to where they grow things

[3d]

Paul F. wrote:
[quote=3d]
Where are you that corn is 10-20 cents an ear? I'm typically seeing 5/$2 here in NY all summer long.

Dude.. you're in NY... some of us live a lot closer to where they grow things
When I was a kid in Brooklyn (in the 80s) my mom would scoff at paying 12/$1. She would say it's too expensive. We will wait until next week when it's 15/$1. Me and my siblings would groan and moan about not having corn that week. Those were the days!

*EDIT*
There are farms out by us that sell local corn for cheap. But you gotta buy an entire bushel(?). Soemthing like 50 ears of corn for $15. But that would be way too much for us to eat. And you gotta drive out to the boonies.

[cbelt3]

Drives me bats as well. I just squeeze the top and middle... Mushy ? Put it back. I also usually soak them in salted water and then put them on the grill for 20 minutes.. turned once. They steam in the leaves. Shucking them THEN is a bit dicey, but they stay warm. Definitely 'eat outside' food. The leaves go in the compost pile.

[voodoopenguin]

Rick-o wrote:
An old farmer once told me the best time to pick corn is 15 minutes before you sit down to eat.

Absolutely. Tonight we will be having the first of our crop from the garden, I don't go out to pick it until the water is boiling.

This was from a few weeks ago.



Paul

[NewtonMP2100]

I've had some call me a mother shucker......does that count.....???

[ztirffritz]

When I was a kid, dad would send us on a trek up the road to the McGuiness' Farm. It had long since ceased to be a commercial farm, but they still planted corn. They'd pick it fresh each day when in season and we'd buy a dozen ears for about $1 then haul it back home. Best corn I've ever had.

On a somewhat related note, how do most people prepare corn? When I was a kid we always shucked and boiled it. Then I read about soaking it in the husks and grilling it. Recently I learned about microwaving it. I have to admit, I was skeptical of the microwave option, but I've been pleasantly surprised with how well it works and it makes the prep WAY easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzYtMeIFH8o

[davemchine]

I definitely check quality at the grocery store as it varies tremendously. I don't want corn that looks like bill's photos. I prefer to boil my corn or if it is extremely fresh it is also good raw (watch for bugs!). If I buy it buy the bag full then I boil, cool, strip off the corn, baggie, and freeze for winter.