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Fried Corn
Cut the corn carefully from 6 ears of nice sweet corn. Do not score, and be careful not to cut any of the cob with the corn, but have each grain separate. Put 1 tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan; put in the corn and fry until a nice brown, stirring often. Draw the pan away from the hot fire, add half a cupful of hot cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once in a hot dish. Nice for breakfast or lunch.
A straightforward skillet dish that depends almost entirely on the corn itself and on getting real browning before the cream goes in.
- YieldSix ears give roughly three to four cups of kernels, enough for about four modest servings. It cooks down noticeably once the cream reduces.
- "Do not score"Scoring means running a knife tip down each row to split the kernels and then scraping out the pulp, which gives a milky mash. Here the point is whole, separate grains that can brown, so cut straight down the cob at the base of the kernels and stop there.
- The hinge: dry corn browns, wet corn steamsFrozen or very juicy corn will release liquid and simply stew. Pat the kernels dry, use a wide pan so they sit in a single layer, and leave them undisturbed in stretches rather than stirring constantly, despite the original wording.
- Butter quantityOne tablespoon is thin for three cups of corn in a modern nonstick or stainless pan. Two to three tablespoons, or butter with a little bacon fat, browns more evenly without scorching.
- Heat"A hot fire" means medium-high on a burner. Pull the pan off the heat entirely before the cream goes in, or it will hit the hot fat and split.
- CreamHeavy cream, warmed. Half a cup will reduce and coat the kernels in a minute or two; half-and-half works but stays looser and is more likely to curdle over direct heat.
- Choosing corn"Nice sweet corn" here would have meant field-fresh and still milky. Modern supersweet varieties hold their sugar for days, so supermarket ears are fine, though they may still need patting dry before they will brown.