Today is National Corn on the Cob Day, the way God intended you to eat it, not creamed or mixed in succotash.

One of my favorite memories is our family visits to the Ohio State Fair when I was young.  Demolition Derby is a really cool concept when your age is in single digits.  I remember (may be fogged by time) the corn on the cob booth I looked forward to every year.  As I recall there were tubs of ears of corn kept in cold water which were plucked out by strong young farmers who expertly pulled back the green covering and silk to reveal a perfectly mesmerizing yellow ear of corn.  They pulled back the shuck to use as a handle.  They placed these ears on a device like you see in a warehouse with rollers slanting downward over hot coals.  The corn would steadily cook and blacken as it rolled down the conveyor belt, pushed by new ears placed above and turning steadily on the metal rollers, cooking all the way around.  They finally reached the bottom, in front of me, the customer (well, my dad paid, but technically I was about to become the true consumer).  Lovely young ladies with oven mitts pulled the now charred ear off the assembly line and plunged it into a vat of melted butter and then salted it liberally before offering it like a prize to my young hands.  I always dripped melted butter on my shirt but it was – the. best. corn. I. will. ever. eat. ever.

Now the method.  As God intended, left to right, down a row like a typewriter.  Not around the circumference.  So wrong.  Sad.  Boy, will I get in trouble for that observation.  Happy National Corn on the Cob Day!

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes

TOMORROW: another review!