Corn on the Cob

Buy corn with bright green, tightly wrapped husks and silk that's pale and slightly sticky, dry brown silk means old corn. Skip the peel-back-the-husk move at the store; just feel through the husk for plump, full rows all the way to the tip. In season, farm stand corn picked that morning beats grocery store corn every time. The sugars start converting to starch the moment it's picked, so the rule is simple: cook it the day you buy it. If you must wait, keep it in the husk, in the fridge, and give it two days max.

Corn on the cob is nearly impossible to mess up, which is exactly why people mess it up - they boil it for 15 minutes when 4–6 is all it needs. Fresh sweet corn is already tender; you're just heating it through, and every extra minute past that turns the kernels starchy and tough. Butter and salt are the classic, but chili, lime, and a crumble of cotija (basically lazy elote) is the upgrade. Below you'll find times for boiling, grilling, roasting, and the microwave-in-husk trick that might be the easiest of them all.