Corn season is fully upon us, and that means it’s time to prepare some of your favorite corn recipes like salads, corn chowders, and sauteed side dishes. But, as any person who has tried to cut the kernels off a corn cob will tell you, the process can get messy — and quickly. Luckily, Ina Garten has a secret trick to making sure all those delicious kernels stay in one place (and not on your kitchen floor). All you need is a clean kitchen towel and a bit of patience.
“How do you get the kernels off the corn cob without getting them all over your kitchen?” Garten asks in a recent video posted to her Instagram. “I worked out a system.”
You want to place your clean kitchen towel down on your work surface. Make sure it’s a large one that covers most of your working space. Then, slice the butt end of the corn cob off so you’re left with a flat surface to stand the cob on.
“Then you run your knife right down the cob. You want a really sharp knife so you get most of the kernels,” Garten continued, adding, “Without the kitchen towel, kernels just bounce all over the kitchen. And then, when you’re done, what you can do is just pick up the kitchen towel and put the kernels right into a bowl.”
“In the summer in East Hampton, when the fields are filled with gorgeous corn, I love to make corn salads, sauteed corn, corn chowder — anything that uses fresh corn!” Garten wrote in the caption of her post. “I’ve loved it ever since I moved out here, which is why you’ll find so many corn recipes in my cookbooks.”
Some of her favorites include Confetti Corn, Lobster Corn Chowder, Fresh Corn Pancakes, Chipotle Parmesan Sweet Corn, and Perfect Poached Lobster and Corn with Tarragon Butter — is your mouth watering yet or what?
You can check out some of our favorite corn recipes from Ina Garten here, and now that you have Garten’s kernel-harvesting tip under your belt, you can slice kernels from the cob like a pro. Enjoying corn has never been easier!
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