Corn On The Cob

Say what? A recipe for corn on the cob? Yessir, I need one! We eat seasonally, so that means we only eat corn on the cob when it's available in our area, and every year I try to remember how I did it the year before after umpteen trial and errors. But no more! As long as I remember that I wrote down how I do it for corn the way I like it, it will be preserved for the future. And I like my corn on the cob al-dente (if I can use that expression here), so very short cooking time.

1. Fill a pot of water big enough to hold the amount of corn you have. That means that you should be able to fill it ¾ full of water and the remaining ¼ will fit the corn, without it boiling over.
2. Add lots of salt to the water - for 6 ears of corn, I put in 1 Tbsp of salt.
3. While you bring the water to a boil, shuck the corn (outside - I'm very neat, and even I couldn't prevent the tassels from spread beyond my shucking bucket).
4. When the water is at a roiling boil, carefully add the corn, preferably using tongs or one of those corn-holding scissor type things. It's easy for the boiling water to splash out and onto you. Ouch!
5. Cook for 5 minutes and remove immediately. Serve asap with butter, salt and pepper on the side.

NOTE: for timing, I've seen everything from 5 to 15 minutes. More than 5 minutes, have a cooling bath ready to stop the cooking when you take it out of the boiling water. For myself, 5 minutes without a cooling bath gets me my perfect cob of corn.