Fun Food Fridays: Barbeque Corn on the Cob
August 20th, 2010 | 
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When Nicole & I were camping last weekend, we bought 5 ears of corn at the grocery store in Williams. Nicole wanted to try barbequing them! Neither one of us had ever made grilled corn on the cob but we were up to the challenge.
INGREDIENTS
- Ears of corn, in husks
- Butter, salt and pepper (to taste)
- Tin foil (optional)
Begin by peeling back the husks to remove the silk. The trick to this seemed to be to gently peel it away from the corn so the husk doesn’t rip completely off the ear. Tugging firmly on the silk (in line with the ear of corn) seemed to be the best way to remove the silk.
The more of the silk you can remove, the better.
Remove any parts of the corn that are bruised, damaged, or eaten by worms!
Then, we mashed butter along the corn before pulling the husks back into place. (I’m not sure if that HAS to be done, but we did it!) Don’t expect the husks to completely cover the kernels; it’ll be okay.
We cooked the corn directly on the grill over the fire. We probably SHOULD have started the fire earlier so there were less flames and more coals (also less smoke!) but it did work. I kept pushing the burning logs more under the grill so the heat would be more or less even, but every time I did, the flames would leap up and catch the corn husks on fire. But the corn has a high moisture content so it didn’t burn.
Don't be alarmed if the corn catches on fire! It'll still taste fine.
Cook about 20 minutes. You’ll want to use metal tongs to flip the corn over half-way through cooking. We also rotated them on the grill at that time too so all ears were evenly over the hottest part of the fire.
The corn turned out tender and juicy! The smoke (and ignited husks) gave the corn a great smoky flavor. If you don’t LIKE the taste of smoke (Nicole doesn’t!) then wrap the corn loosely in tin foil before cooking.
Wrap the foil loosely so the corn can steam; pull the foil too tight and the corn will scorch.
Like any time you’re eating corn on the cob, expect to get dirty! Have plenty of paper towels on hand. Handling the ears also turned my hands (and shirt) black since they were well charred on the outermost layer.
Serve with lots of butter, salt & pepper! And napkins!
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Kim, I cook corn this way all the time when I camp… I usually also leave the silk inside and just throw the corn right on! Because the silk is moist, the corn will steam and stay nice and juicy! The key to cooking corn this way is to turn it often, and like you said rotate the ears over the hot spots in the fire.
Kevin — You know, I had THOUGHT about it but Nicole was calling the shots on it… I’m going camping again in a few weeks so I’ll have to try it out.
[…] the corn over the campfire. Here’s how: Fun Food Fridays: Barbeque Corn on the Cob (But forgo stuffing butter into the corn husks during […]