User:IveGoneAway/Green Corn

“So... what's your preference when you'd love to have corn as a dish for dinner?” — my Chinese neice in Szechwan

Corn on the cob

It is interesting that there isn’t a consistent word in use for corn eaten at that particular unripenned stage (before getting all starchy, then hard and dry), other than Sweet corn, but any kind of maize can be eaten that way. You pretty much have to go by context. (Europeans call any grain “korn”, while “maize” is the Progressive word for American Indian corn.) But, if corn is listed on a restaurant menu, it means the young, unripenned, juicy corn served as a vegetable, which one would expect to be sweet corn, but many times there is reason to doubt that. It is typically simply seasoned with butter, salt, and black pepper.

Before refrigeration, English-speaking Americans would have called it green corn, that its, the plant is still green and the kernels are tender sweet and juicy; and you go out to the field pull it off the plant, “husk” the leaves off of the ear and boil the kernels on the cob. This is “eating corn on the cob”. If you aren’t set up to boil water, you roast the ears over a fire, effectively /steaming/ the kernels in the water in the green husk leaves, but it is trickier. But this is why it was always a little confusing that Dad always called it “roasting ears”, when I never knew it to be roasted until I moved to the city.

The tender kernels could be shaved off the ear raw and then boiled (cut corn).

The Green Corn Ceremony is the American Indian’s very holy “New Years” celebration, mid to later summer, when they would feast on the last of their hard corn, fast a week or two, then feast on the early green corn.

Because we raised the corn only for the “green” form, Dad would plant a few rows every week so as to extend the period of “sweet corn” as each set of rows would come into “eatin’” stage in turn over the summer.

While full ripe corn grain can be stored for centuries, green corn naturally does not last without preservation. Grandma used to can cut corn for storage (canned corn), while mom would freeze cut corn (frozen corn). Usually, frozen corn “from the store” tastes much better than canned corn from the store, but some canned brands are almost as good as corn on the cob.

I like to add cooked frozen corn to anything that has any sort of Mexican seasoning. Cut corn is commonly served as a side dish for chili (especially in school lunches) and at some point, I just started to dump the corn into the chili (my son has inherited that trait). I have learned that a special treat within the Kanza was to add, in season, fresh green corn niblets to there buffalo and bean chili!