Make Your Life Easier by Cutting Your Corn Horizontally
Although yesterday was the first day of fall, I still (desperately) enjoy the sweet summer corn. Looking back on corn season this year, I’m very happy with all my corn , although a little annoyed that I didn’t get that last little corn joke until September.
I went to my boyfriend’s place, cut grains from a few ears of corn to make a salad, and (because I was in his kitchen) I used a much smaller cutting board than I was used to. The grains were flying as usual, although a clean tea towel was catching quite a few of them when it suddenly occurred to me that the best way to keep them off the floor was to cut them close to the cutting board. By closer I mean in full contact with. I put the ears horizontally, took a large knife, tilted it to the cutting board and pushed down to remove multiple rows of corn at once.
It worked just fine.
While you can get a slightly cleaner cut if you hold the ear perpendicular to the cutting board, you simply cannot prevent the corn from flying all over the place, and I really hate removing tiny pieces of corn. A sheet covered with a towel might help (bandt pots have too little grip radius and I don’t even start this trick with toilet paper rolls), but even then I lose a few. By keeping the ears on the cutting board, I have not lost anything.
However, you will need a fairly large and sturdy knife, especially when making the first cut. A blade that is at least as long as your cob is ideal, as you will be cutting towards the board in one motion rather than moving the knife along the entire length of the cob. Once you remove the kernel from that first side, it becomes easier to see where you should cut to get the most kernel per cut, but it is also much safer. The cut side is flat , which is much more stable than a tall, vertically oriented ear balancing at the end or in the tuft tray. As a clumsy coward who loves corn, this is how I cut it from now on.