I may never boil corn again now that I've started following the recipe fround in Trio for Blunt Instruments. This is one of Rex Stout's novels featuring Nero Wolfe, the obese, orchid-growing private investigator. Nero says to a police detective:
"Since you have questioned men at the restaurant, you know that the corn comes from a man named Duncan McLeod, who grows it on a farm some sixty miles north of here. He has been supplying it for four years, and he knows precisely what I require. It must be nearly mature, but not quite, and it must be picked not more than three hours before it reaches me. Do you eat sweet corn?"
"Yes. You're stalling."
"No. Who cooks it?"
"My wife. I haven't got a Fritz."
"Does she cook it in water?"
"Sure. Is yours cooked in beer?"
"No. Millions of American women, and some men, commit that outrage every summer day. They are turning a superb treat into mere provender. Shucked and boiled in water, sweet corn is edible and nutritious; roasted in the husk in the hottest possible oven for forty minutes, shucked at the table, and buttered and salted, nothing else, it is ambrosia. No chef's ingenuity and imagination have ever created a finer dish. American women should themselves be boiled in water."
***
Put the ears on a baking sheet in a 475-500 degree oven for 40 minutes, and then present on a platter at the table with butter and salt on the side. Have your guests shuck at the table. It tastes like cake.
You'll be tempted to cook this at a lower heat or for less long, but I've tried it at all heats from 400 to 500 and from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. Forty minutes at 500 degrees is the best. It doesn't dry out. It's sweet and perfect. Don't worry about the cornsilk; it comes easily off the ear after roasting.
Aside from how much it heats up the apartment, this is the best thing I've ever eaten. I'm pretty much making it every day.
