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Corn on the Cob
Free the corn from husks and silk; have a kettle of water boiling hard; drop the corn into it and cook ten minutes (or longer if the corn is not young). If a very large number of ears are put into the water they will so reduce the temperature that a longer time will be needed. In no case, however, should the corn be left too long in the water, as overcooking spoils the delicate flavor.
A method rather than a formula, and the one thing that has genuinely changed since Mrs. Fryer wrote is the corn itself.
- Cut the timeTen minutes was reasonable for field-ripe or older market corn with tough, starchy kernels. Modern supersweet and sugar-enhanced hybrids are tender raw; three to five minutes in hard-boiling water is enough, and freshly picked ears need barely more than a return to the boil.
- The warning still holdsHer closing line is the hinge of the whole entry. Overcooked corn goes tough and loses its sweetness, so err short rather than long.
- Batch sizeHer note about a crowd of ears dropping the water temperature is sound physics. Use a wide kettle with plenty of water, cook in batches, and let it come back to a full boil between them rather than extending the time blindly.
- Don't salt the waterSalt is not mentioned here. Season at the table with butter and salt instead.
- Silk removalA dry vegetable brush or a damp cloth run down the ear takes off stray silk faster than picking by hand.
- ServingAllow one to two ears per person. Corn cools fast on the plate, so drain and serve immediately, wrapped in a folded napkin in the dish if there is any delay.
Corn on the cob appears in the vegetable chapter of a book like this one as a strictly seasonal habit: sweet corn was a high-summer food, eaten within hours of picking because the sugars in older varieties began converting to starch almost immediately after harvest. That urgency explains the familiar kitchen lore, often repeated though not found in this recipe, about setting the water to boil before going out to the garden. The supersweet hybrids that hold their sugar for days in a refrigerator were developed well after this book, which is why a modern cook can be more relaxed about the interval and far stricter about the cooking time.