Mamaw's Creamed Corn - Carrying Forward Her Cooking for Posterity - No Cream Involved

So, I thought I'd create a blog for this longer post.  I was in the kitchen working on cutting some corn off the cobb in order to make my grandmother's delicious creamed corn when it hit me.  I am her last descendent who watched her make that dish.  As I have not procreated, I really AM the last.  That made me really sad because her cooking, and her creamed corn specifically, was so incredibly delicious and the thought of her recipes being lost is too much.  Soooo, I decided to take on the task of recording her cooking in order to try to get one person, just one, to make one of her dishes and keep her cooking memory alive.

So, today we will make creamed corn.  Now, there is NO cream involved here.  This is a really simple recipe.

The ingredients list is:

• fresh, young sweet corn on the cob
• water
• salt
• pepper
• butter

Yep.  This is simple.  The ideal here is to taste the CORN.  It utilizes the starches in the corn to make a beautiful silky texture and the sugars in the corn make it sweet, but not like that horrible horrible stuff you get out of a can.  That's not food, it's paste.  Ok, I shan't rant about processed food here.  That's a whole other novel. 

The key to this recipe is fresh, young sweet corn.  As most of us live in a city, we get our corn on the cob from grocery stores and maybe the odd farmer's market.  So, we don't get a lot of choice of variety and can't really control when the corn was picked.  Fresh, young corn is ideal for this because the starches have not started to solidify.  The corn is still really juicy and tender.  The kernels themselves pop readily when you press your thumb into them.  Fresh corn kernels are translucent and have a sheen to them.  Older, more mature corn loses that sheen and becomes drier.  When you poke them with your thumb, they don't pop so much as just mush.  This is not the ideal.  When you buy your corn, look for drier silks on the outside, but fresh greenish silks on the inside of the husk.  The husk itself should be green and succulent.  It should smell fresh, like grass.  If your silks and your husks are all dried out, they are not worth buying.  Move on to broccoli or whatever else looks good.  But, let's assume you found a wonderful bushel basket of fresh young corn.  Maybe a farmer who grows Silver Queen (my favorite variety).  What do you do with it now?

Go home and shuck!  Get a glass of tea or a beer or whatever else you enjoy and go out into your back yard with it, your corn and a big basket or bowl and shuck.  I won't give shucking lessons here.  I think most people have figured that out by now.  Just remember to save those husks for your compost heap.  I have fond memories of shucking bushels of corn under the sweetgum tree at my grandparents house while I listened to my grandfather tell stories about when he was young and working the oil fields.  You can have a great time too, since shucking is a great time for talking and sharing your ideas and stories.  It's a nice time to slow down and enjoy the summer and your family and friends.

Now, you have shucked corn.  I promise there is a recipe in here, but this is a blog so I'm blogging too.  Anyway.  Take your corn inside to your kitchen.  Clear off a large area that is easy to clean.  What I mean by that is make sure that where you are working is a rather flat surface that is easy to clean off.  If you have a lot of doodads around, they're going to get covered with corn juice and you don't want to spend all afternoon cleaning that off, now do you? 

Your hardware will now consist of 1 very sharp knife with about a 6-8 inch blade and one large spoon with a large bowl having a sharper edge on it.  I find cheap spoons work best here. You're using this for scraping, that's why you want the sharper edge.  Get a bowl that is wide and deep. 

Take your corn cobs and get your knife.  You want to cut just the tippy tops off the corn kernels.  Think of giving the corn a shave.  You're getting a little of the kernel's covering but more than anything, you're opening up the kernels to get at the good stuff.  Cut the tops off of all the corn cobs all the way around.  Once they're all scalped, get your spoon and start scraping.  You want to scrape all the goodness out of the kernels.  I usually scrape a cob at least twice.  Juice is going to go everywhere.  It will be on your face, on your clothes, on the dog standing next to you by the counter, your husband working at the stove.  Really.  But you can minimize the spray by holding the spoon with the bottom of the bowl facing you and scraping downward into your bowl.  Yes it's messy, but worth it.

This corn was a little old, but I used it anyway.  See how the kernels have dimples in them? I let it sit in the fridge too long.  Fresh corn is plump and not dimpled.

This is how your corn will look with the tops of the kernels cut off.  See all that corn goodness inside?

Here I am scraping the corn.  See how I'm holding the spoon?  Don't use a lot of force, just go over the whole cob and do it a couple of times. You'll see when you've gotten all the goodness out.

When you're done, the corn cobb will look a little frazzled.

But you will have lots of corn goodness to cook

Once you have your creamy corny goodness, it's time to cook or you can put your corn into freezer containers and save it for winter time.  Let's assume you're going to cook it.  Get out a nice, big skillet.  If you have a non-stick skillet, more the better.  You want it big enough to put your corn in it to cover the bottom in about 1/2 inch of liquid goodness, no more than an inch, ok.  An electric skillet also works well.  Mamaw used hers to death making creamed corn.  Anyway, heat your skillet at medium to medium high heat and add a pat of butter or margarine.  What ever you like.  I go for natural butter.  Once that's melted, pour in your corn and add about 1/4 cup of water.  Just a little water.  The corn will melt while it cooks and give you more liquid.  Add a little salt and pepper, whatever you like.  You know how much you like to use and you can always salt it a little more on your plate.  Now, bring your corn up to a slow simmer.  Adjust your heat so that it barely makes the little blurping bubbles as it cooks.  Stir frequently.  This is starchy stuff, so it can want to burn and stick.  Keep your heat lower and cook it slowly.  Now, this is not a 4 hour recipe, so don't worry. Cook it for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.  Think of risotto.  You're doing something similar here because you're encouraging the starches to unwind and make a silky sauce.  Taste your corn after 20 minutes.  If the sauce is silky and the corn is sweet and tasty, you're ready to eat.  Turn off your fire and if you like, finish it with another little dollop of butter or margarine or not. 

To eat your creamed corn, I recommend enjoying it with fresh sliced tomatoes.  The flavor combination is transcendent. I am not joking.  If you have to have a meat, beef tends to go well with it, but I just eat corn and tomatoes when I get the chance. 

I hope to goodness one of you will make this recipe.  I have a condensed version below for you to use when you don't want to read all my prattling.  If you make this, thank Estelle Howard Byerly for it and the long line of Howard women who came before her and passed on their cooking traditions. 

Mamaw's Creamed Corn
4-6 ears of fresh, young corn on the cob
a couple pats of butter
a little fresh water
salt
pepper

1. Cut the tops off of the corn kernels into a bowl
2. Scrape all the juice and goodness out of the kernels into the bowl
3. Heat a large skillet (nonstick is best, or electric skillet) and melt a pat of butter (half a tablespoon)
4. Put the corn goodness into the skillet
5. Add a little water, go with 1/4 cup or less to start; you can always add more if it looks to need it
6. Add salt and pepper to taste
7. Bring the corn to a slow simmer.  Low and slow does it
8. Cook the corn stirring frequently for about 20 minutes; taste at 20 and if it seems good, you're done
9. Turn off the fire and add another dollop of butter or margarine, if you like
10. EAT!