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Corn Roasts
For beach corn roasts, remove the corn silk, twist the ends of the husks tightly together, tie them, and soak in salted water. Build a fire in a hole in the sand, and keep it going until the sand is very hot. Bury the corn in the hot sand and rebuild the fire over it, which may be used to cook the rest of the meal.
At Camp Sweyolaken the corn roast given the camp by a neighbor across the bay is an annual event which by now is traditional. Early in the morning of the day of the corn roast the fires are built on the beach so that the sand will be hot. The girls in the camp craft classes keep the fires going until four o'clock in the afternoon when the neighbor comes over, digs out all the coals and puts in the corn. Then wet sacks are placed on top of the corn and sand put over them. The corn is left to steam in its husks for about twenty minutes.
Corn can also be roasted in hot ashes or coals, as potatoes are roasted, removing the silk and preparing the husks as before. Or the husks and silk may be removed, the end of the cob reamed out with a knife, and the ear put on a stick and roasted over the coals.
POTATOES Of course potatoes may be cooked in the ashes "as is," but they are apt to be a disappointment-charred outside and hard at the center. Coated with clay and baked, or cooked in the same hole with a clam bake, corn roast, beans or imu they are excellent. If cooked with clams or fish they should be started first. One very satisfactory way of cooking potatoes is in a large pail or tin can. Fill it with wet sand and potatoes, cover and bury the pail in hot coals G or in the hot sand or earth under the fire. Punch a hole in the lid to let out the steam. Small potatoes cooked in this way require about an hour to cook. Roast potatoes take longer allow from one to two hours.
And here is a recipe, serving 10 people, that is very popular at camp: Little Pig Potatoes 10 GOOD-SIZED POTATOES IO LINKS LITTLE PIG SAUSAGES Cut a core out of the center of a rather long potato, stuff a small link of sausage in the hole and close both ends with pieces of potato core. These cores may be removed toward the last if you want to let the sausages brown a bit. Wrap in leaves and bake in hot coals or bury in hot sand and bake. It takes at least an hour to cook them. Test by poking a sliver into one.
Two beach-pit methods with no oven and no clock beyond the fire itself. The whole thing hinges on heating the sand long enough that it holds its temperature after the coals are pulled out.
- The hinge: heat the sand, not the cornA pit fire needs hours, not minutes, to drive heat down into damp sand. The recipe asks only that the fire be kept going "until the sand is very hot"; the camp version burns from early morning until four o'clock, which is the only duration the page actually supplies.
- Soaking the husksThe recipe gives no soaking time. The point is wet husks that steam rather than ignite, so the corn cooks in its own wrapper; a short soak is enough and longer does no harm.
- Wet sacks"Wet sacks" means burlap or clean cotton feed sacks, soaked and wrung out. Wet canvas or several layers of dampened cotton cloth do the same job; avoid anything synthetic or printed, which will melt or transfer dye onto the food.
- Timing for cornTwenty minutes buried is the time the recipe gives, for corn cooked in the husk. Sweet corn varieties bred since mid-century are sweeter and more tender than older ones and can go slack, so it is worth checking the first ear early.
- Reamed cob on a stickBoring out the butt end with a knife makes a socket for a green hardwood stick. Use green wood, not dry, and keep the ear at the edge of the coals rather than over flame or the exposed kernels blacken before the interior warms through.
- The clay-coated potatoA jacket of stiff, stone-free clay, well pressed on, insulates the potato so it bakes instead of charring. The recipe allows from one to two hours for roast potatoes; crack the shell off with a stick.
- The pail method, and the vent holeA closed can of wet sand buried in coals is a steam vessel, and the hole punched in the lid is not optional. Use an unlined steel pail or a plain food can; do not use galvanized buckets, aluminum foil pans, or any container with painted or coated interior.
- Little Pig Potatoes and the sausage insideThe doneness test given checks the potato only. Raw pork sausage sealed inside a potato heats more slowly than the flesh around it, so check the sausage itself and take it to 160F; the finished potato tells you nothing about its core.
- YieldThe stuffed-potato recipe serves 10, one potato each. For the corn, lay the ears in a single layer in the pit so the hot sand contacts every one.