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Chesapeake Sweet Summer Corn
Edible Chesapeake Summer 2006
by John Shields
The golden oldie song says, "There ain't no cure for the summertime blues."
But I heartily disagree - especially if you're lucky enough to have access to wonderful sweet summer corn from the Chesapeake region. Right along with spring asparagus, late spring strawberries, the first soft-shells of the season the appearance of the sweet summer corn at the stalls of our local farmers markets is a yearly culinary milestone. When I take a bite into my first-of-the-summer, perfectly sweet, crisp cob of corn a feeling comes over me that life is definitely good.
I remember many a backyard cookout with a grill loaded with hotdogs and hamburgers and a pot full of just-picked Silver Queen corn. I would easily wolf down nearly a dozen ears myself and left to my own devices would have forgotten about anything else on the table. At one particular cookout I remember some guests from out of town turning down the corn when it was passed saying that corn is for the animals.
I thought them slightly out of their minds. Who in their good senses would give a pig or a cow this delicious sweet corn? As I looked into it a little more I found out that the corn they were referring to was called FIELDCORN. The corn that graces our summertime picnic tables is a variety of maize know as SWEETCORN. In fact, there are actually many distinct types of corn, the ubiquitous tall grass that we see mono cropped across most of the farmlands of America.
All corn that is grown today is descended from the maize that was domesticated by the native peoples of Mexico. Maize is believed to be a human created hybrid related to the native grass teosinte. Thousands of years ago maize cultivation spread from Mexico up into the U.S. Southwest and into northeastern U.S. and southeast Canada, transforming the landscape as Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for the new crop.
Owing to its genetic structure, corn is uniquely suitable for hybridization, which is the deliberate cross/breeding of different varieties within one species. It has also been an early candidate for genetic modification whereby the DNA structure of the gene itself is altered or combined with genetic elements from an entirely different species. Nature forms hybrids constantly as part of the evolutional process of adaptation and human efforts at breeding plants and animals to enhance desired traits is merely mimicking the ways of nature herself. Genetic Modification is a very, very recent experiment by humans that seeks to create living entities that would never have evolved under any natural circumstances...so the jury is still out. And personally I hope it stays out!
Today, most types of corn (both hybrid and GMO) are grown to be fed to livestock. There are also many industrial uses for feed corn. Some is hydrolyzed and enyzmatically treated to produce corn syrup - which is a fancy way of saying high fructose syrup (it's in almost every processed food) and some is fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol, or ethanol. Grain alcohol from corn is the traditional source of bourbon whiskey (a former big business around these parts) and most recently we've been hearing lots on the news about ethanol since many folks hope it can ease our transition from rapidly depleting fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.
The dried kernels of corn can be ground into corn meal for important staple foods like polenta, cornbread or tortillas. Another method of handling corn is called nixtamalization - scary sounding isn't it? Here a caustic agent such as lye from wood ash or a strong citrus water bath is used to remove the germ and the hard outer hull from the kernels. Hominy is prepared this way. Nixtamalization makes the nutrients easier to digest and many folks think it improves the texture and flavor. I absolutely love hominy but had no idea that it required a reverse osmosis process - who would have thought?
The sweet corn that we serve as a vegetable is a specific genetic variation that has been bred to be high in sugars and low in starch. When I was a kid chowing down on a summer's evening, Silver Queen, sweet and bursting with the taste of summer, was The Bomb for on-the-cob eating. But in the last couple decades there's been a lot of breeding work done on corn to enhance that sweetness while also extending the length of time a fresh ear will retain that perfect quality of flavor. See, the very minute that ear is pulled from the stalk the sugars in the kernels begin to turn to starches... the corn becomes less sweet as half its sugar can turn to starch in a mere 24 hours. That's why my folks always drove out to the farm to buy those fresh green ears at the roadside stands - just picked from the field where they grew.
The newer varieties, like Silverado, Snow White, Spring Treat and others, have been bred to hold their sweetness much longer, giving your ears a little longer to get from the field to the pot - but of course, the very best tasting corn is always going to be the freshest corn!
Besides right off the cob sweet corn can be transformed into all manner of delectable Chesapeake fare - from fritters to chowders. Here are a couple of my personal favorite summertime corn recipes.
Corn, Crab, & Red Pepper Salad
Serves 6
This recipe makes a refreshing summer salad from some of Maryland's most famous foods - sweet corn and crab. Simply serve this salad on a bed of butter lettuce, or as a party appetizer, place into a decorative bowl with fresh tortilla chips on the side and it magically transforms into a marvelous dip.
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 large garlic clove, peeled and mashed
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 pound fresh or pasteurized backfin crabmeat, picked over for shells
1 small red onion, peeled and finely minced
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, cut in fine dice
4 cups fresh Silver Queen (or other sweet corn) corn kernels
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 teaspoon Old Bay or seafood seasoning
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine oil, vinegar, garlic, lime juice, and whisk thoroughly. Place crab, red onion, red pepper, corn, and cilantro together in a bowl and toss gently, taking care not to break up the lumps of crab. Pour the lime dressing over top and gently toss again. Season with Old Bay, salt, and pepper to taste. Cover and chill for at least one hour before serving.
Kent County Corn Pudding
Serves 4 to 6
During summer harvest the corn from Kent County is the sweetest imaginable. I enjoy nothing better then eating it lightly cooked and right off the cob, but another delicious method is this traditional eastern shore savory corn pudding.
2 cups fresh sweet corn kernels (4 to 5 ears) coarsely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon grated onion
2 tablespoon minced, or snipped chives
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 1-quart baking dish.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs and flour to make a smooth mixture. Slowly stir in the milk and then add the remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until set. Serve warm.
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