No one knows how to properly roast corn on the cob better than a mid-westerner.

It's simple, easy, and nothing says 'summer' like corn juice and butter dripping off your chin as you bite into a freshly roasted ear.

All you need is corn, butter, salt, and a fire. Oh, and a bucket or so of water.

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Start with the most recently picked ears you can find and a day ahead of when you plan to roast it. This helps the kernels stay as sweet as possible. The sugars start breaking down into starches the minute you pick it. Yes, this is a balancing act.

I picked up ten ears of bi-color at the local farm stand. I choose the fatter ones over the longer. Your chances for a fully mature ear are better.

DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT PEEK BY PULLING IT OPEN.

You want the husk fully intact. Live dangerously and trust Mother Nature.

Soak the ears overnight. Any container will do. Make sure they're totally submersed. You'll need a weight to keep them from floating.

The next day, get yourself organized - you're going to be keeping a pretty close eye on the process. The wood and tub-o-corn are handy, as are a place to sit and an improvised table. I was bummed that I had to resort to a big box store for the hardwood. There are usually any number of places that have it, but not this year. I was impressed, though, that it came from Wisconsin and was kiln dried.

Hubby did the honors of getting the show on the road. (I have video of the steps of the entire process, but YouTube isn't playing nicely with my camera's recordings. I will post those when I get over wanting to throw my keyboard against the wall.)

In spite of a very strong breeze, threatening to blow out our fire, we prevailed!

Now that we have an even bed of coals, we can move the grate into place.

This is why the corn was soaked - you're going to place the ears directly over the coals. The hotter the better. The goal is to build up heat to literally steam them in their own husks. All that sweetness is locked in because the 'wrapper' wasn't compromised. The husk also adds it's own sweetness to the end result. (It just struck me - this should be the official Steemit dish. Laboring to build up steam for a sweet payoff! HA!)

Roasting times are flexible. I used the following as baseline, but it may take longer or shorter depending on your grilling set-up. This was our first attempt at roasting corn on this firepit. (We usually use the charcoal grill by the house.)

Here we go...

Place the ears, dripping wet, the fattest ears over the hottest coals, silks furthest from you. This way you have a bit of a handle.

Let them go at least 15 minutes. Remember, you're building up steam.

Give them a half turn, wait maybe 10 minutes this time. It's okay if the husk is turning brown. That's what you want!

Give them a quarter turn, another 10 minutes, then a final half turn to finish. You should be able to tell by this point which one, if any, need more time.

Don't worry if the husks are heavily scorched. Chances are it hasn't reached the kernels. Even if it has, unless it's totally charred, will be edible. Personally, I like a little scorch on the kernels.

To ensure the entire ear is fully cooked, I transfer the roasted ears to a paper bag and seal it up. This allows the steaming process to continue without risking burns. It will keep warm this way for a long time - especially if you throw a towel over it to further keep in the heat.

Now you get to see how well you did in choosing your ears! They should be warm, but not hot at this point and able to be handled.

Pull the silk apart and peel away a portion of the husk. Do NOT break off the husk!

The silk should come away easily with the husk, leaving little behind. The steaming process will have loosened it. Any remaining threads will come away with a quick rub.

The husk will serve as your handle.

Wrap a paper towel around the husk to make it sturdier and to have a way to wipe all that juice off your chin when you're done!

Take a stick of butter and peel back just one end of the stick. Rub it over the kernels. The butter will stay in the grooves. Hit it with a bit of salt and you're ready to go. Pepper is acceptable, if you must, but I think it masks the taste of corn too much.

Anything else is not authentic roasted corn, in my biased opinion. ;~D

Oh, and since I have way more corn than I needed out of this batch, I'll do up another post showing where it ends up. Maybe by that time I'll have figured out the video snafu, too. In the meantime, I encourage to give this a try. It's fun and very tasty.

ENJOY!

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