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When the tiny two-table farmer’s market was selling sweet corn last week, I jumped at the chance to pick up a few ears and grill them. I’d talked to a few people who did it, and they said it was something to be tasted. Now, I’m not a big fan of the traditional grilled taste. I’ll never understand the appeal of eating charred, carbon-coated burned victims, but our new grill has been doing a nice job of cooking things perfectly without that off-putting aspect.

For the corn, I was advised to soak the entire ear – husk and silk and all intact – for at least an hour, then grill it on a medium setting for twenty minutes, turning once or twice. That’s the kind of simple instruction I can get on board with, and after the twenty minutes was up, I started to shuck the corn and check out the results.

They were better than expected. The grilled (or “charred”) bits were shucked off and thrown away, and what was left was a juicy corn cob, not watered down, and with none of the flavor leached out. It was so much better than the boiled version I had known all my life. It’s a good moment when you try something new and it turns out to be such an improvement.

After posting a pic on FaceBook a few people said the next thing to try was to partially husk it, slather with flavored butter, then wrap it back up and grill from there. That does sound good, but might be one step too far. It’s always better to keep things simple, especially in the summer.