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.
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!
Upvote, ReSteem, 
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Absolutely going to give it a try!
Thanks!
/Anton
You'll be glad you did!
Sure sounds good! I have to confess I am entirely too LAZY to do this though. I just shuck a couple ears and stick it in the microwave under a wet paper towel for a few minutes. Done and done lol.
Lol! Next time you fire up the grill, throw a couple ears on... that's how we usually do it. I was just looking for an excuse to have a fire. ;~D
That looks a-mazing! I'm so going to try roasting some corn Hoosier style on the coals in that new outdoor oven! Thank you so much for sharing!!😊
Thanks!
I'm betting your oven will do a fantastic job and probably in less time. I hope it turns out great!
Wow wonderful post. I'll definitely have to try roasting corn that way though I'm so guilty of peeking inside the corn husk while it's still raw. I noticed word Hoosier in the title. Does that mean your from Indiana? :D
Thanks! I know it's hard to not look, but it's worth the wait, I promise. ;~D
Yup, born here and lived here most of my life (with a few side trips to Florida and Illinois).
Ok, I will definitely try to be patient the next time. ;)
Wow, that's great. I'm from New York but I had studied at IU in Bloomington for my undergraduate degree. I think the hardest thing to do is try to explain to people who are not from Indiana what exactly a Hoosier is. It's kind of has a similar difficulty in trying to explain what a Sooner is to someone who isn't from Oklahoma.
Yeah, Hoosier is a toughie to explain. I usually just tell folks it's a throwback to farm days when folks would ask 'Who's yer neighbor?' or somesuch question. Honestly, I don't think anyone really knows the definitive history, so one guess is as good as another. Lol!
I've been through Bloomington a couple times, but never had the chance to really visit. The IU campus I'm familiar with is in my hometown, Ft. Wayne. Big school... ;~D
Yes, it definitely is. I tried looking it up before but I just tell people it's just a term for someone from Indiana. Hehe
Bloomington at it's heart is a college town. There's a bit more to it than that but it's mainly driven by the campus at its center. I actually haven't been to Fort Wayne since it's more or less around 2 hours northeast of Indianapolis.
I really love this post. Fresh corn on the cob is my all time favorite food. I've never had it roasted like this before and I'd love to try this. I love silver or white corn the best. You had some good tips like choosing the fatter ears and the part about the starches. I'm working on getting my voting power back up so I'll stop back in tomorrow and give you an upvote.
Thanks, hon! Hubby and I were commenting on the fact that it took such a long post to explain such a simple process. But, then we concluded that the details were what made it turn out so well. I'd love to hear how it works for you. Any kind of corn will work. They just had the bi-color that day, so my choice was made for me. ;~D
Man, this picture set in the beauty backyard you have worked so hard on looks soo good now Deb. Like honestly.
I was not going to vote any more tonight, my VP is drained right out but even at about 49% power I still got you over $7 more for your next dinner LOL!!!!
Nite Eddie, keep up your great work friend.
Thanks, bud! I appreciate that!
It was nice to really enjoy it and have it functional again. It does make all the effort that much more worthwhile. I can see us spending a decent amount of time out there. Hubby is already talking about how we can do roasted potatoes next. Lol!
Rest well and happy dreams!
Thanks for the great tips and will share on 2 of my facebook pages.
Wow, thanks! I hope folks enjoy them!
I'm sure they will.
thx for this post m8, this reminded me of my holiday in turkey 3 years ago. i saw in every city some1 selling these. tastes unbelievable if you know how to prepare it.
they looked like this
now i kindy want to be there
That's the done-ness I like mine. Of course, the husks would be more toasty than this batch. I didn't want to scare folks. ;~D
Corn on the cob is one of my favourite foods, my mouth is watering yum :)
Thanks, hon! Basic is enough for some foods. This is definitely one of them.