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Some Kitchen Kinks: Corn
Green Corn.-Green corn, a typical American food product, is a vegetable which, for most palates, is easily spoiled by overcooking, since the longer the cooking period the less pronounced the delicate corn flavor.
Boiled Corn on the Cob.
The most satisfactory way to serve green corn is on the cob. Free the corn from husks and "silk." Have a kettle of water boiling hard, drop the corn into the water and cook ten minutes.. If only a few ears of corn are put in a kettle of boiling water, the temperature of the water is not lowered greatly and the corn will cook in eight minutes. On the other hand, if a large quantity of corn is crowded into a kettle of boiling water, the temperature is very much lowered and the time of cooking must be increased. When possible, surround the corn with a generous quantity of boiling water.
Corn Cut From Cob.
Corn may be cut from the cob and heated with butter, pepper, and a little milk. For this dish cook the ears five minutes in boiling water to set the juice. Then with a sharp knife cut through the center of each row of grains and with the back of a case knife press the grains of corn from the hulls. Put the corn in a saucepan and season with salt, pepper, and butter. Add enough hot milk to moisten well, and cook ten minutes. Serve at once.
The raw corn may be cut from the cob and treated in the same manner.
Succotash.
To a pint of corn cooked as above add a pint of cooked and seasoned shelled beans.
These are three related preparations of fresh sweet corn, and the book's own warning about overcooking is the point to hold on to. Modern corn varieties make it more urgent, not less.
- "Green corn" means fresh sweet cornThe term simply distinguishes corn eaten in the milk stage from dried field corn. It has nothing to do with colour, and no modern substitute is needed.</br>
- Cut the boiling timeTen minutes was reasonable for the starchier varieties of 1900. Today's sugar-enhanced and supersweet hybrids are tender in 3 to 5 minutes in hard-boiling water, and longer only pushes them toward mush.
- A generous kettle of waterThe book's reasoning is sound: crowding drops the water temperature and stalls the cooking. Use at least 4 quarts for six ears and return to a full boil before you start timing.
- Case knifeAn ordinary table knife. The technique is worth keeping: split each row of kernels lengthwise with a sharp knife, then scrape with the dull back of the table knife so the hulls stay on the cob and only the pulp and milk come away.
- "To set the juice"The five-minute blanch firms the kernels so they scrape cleanly instead of collapsing. If you use raw corn, as the recipe allows, expect a looser, creamier result.
- The milk stageTen minutes in milk is longer than needed and will scorch on a modern high-output burner. Keep it at a bare simmer, stirring, and stop when the milk has thickened slightly — usually 5 to 7 minutes. Do not let it boil hard or the milk will break.
- Beans for the succotash"Shelled beans" here means fresh shell beans — cranberry, lima or similar — cooked separately until tender before they meet the corn. Frozen limas are the practical stand-in. Equal volumes of corn and beans is the classic proportion.
- YieldA pint of cut corn is roughly three to four ears, depending on size. The succotash as written serves four as a side dish.
Succotash carries its origins in its name: it comes from a Narragansett word, generally given as msickquatash, for boiled corn kernels, and the dish of corn cooked with beans is one of the clearest survivals of Indigenous foodways in Anglo-American cookery. The pairing is nutritionally as well as agriculturally logical — corn and beans were grown together in the same fields long before they were cooked together in the same pot. The book's insistence that green corn is "a typical American food product" reflects a common perception of the period: sweet corn on the cob was often remarked on by European visitors as a peculiarly American habit, and it figures far less in contemporary English cookbooks. The emphasis on speed fits the era's growing attention to vegetable cookery, when writers were beginning to argue against the older practice of boiling everything until it surrendered.