A Rubber Dish Glove Is All You Need To Perfectly De-Silk Corn
It's the perfect side dish to nearly any meal, sweet, crisp, and fresh: corn. And if you're not serving corn kernels, you're serving up corn on the cob. These long ears of sweet golden kernels fit pretty easily into any meal and are delicious served with a big square of butter and plenty of salt. If you can boil a pot of water, then you're already halfway done making fresh, hot corn on the cob in just under an hour or less.
But what gets in the way of digging into an ear of butter-drenched corn is actually something that's in the corn itself — those long, thin thread-like strings that diners are stuck picking out of their teeth all night after dinner? According to Purdue Agronomy, these "silks" are actually part of the female components of corn, serving as a way to fertilize the "ovules" of the plant so that they become kernels.
Stepping aside from this discussion on more "biological" matters, these silks usually pose more of an after-dinner annoyance than prompting any sort of discussion on the sexual reproduction of corn. How exactly can you remove these strings from your corn without having to spend all evening picking each one out? It's actually simpler than you might expect.
You need a rubber dish glove to get a good grip
You probably have a set of reusable rubber gloves that you use to wash dishes. They may even have those tiny little bumps all across the surface to help you get a better grip. You may not have known it, but these gloves are actually incredibly useful in removing silk from corn in one fell swoop.
According to Southern Living, all you really need is one rubber glove to do this trick. After husking the corn, place the ear against the surface of your gloved hand and grip it. Then, using your free hand, rub the corn back and forth in your gloved hand. The rough rubber surface will help to remove the corn fibers and silks from the kernels, and whatever is left can simply be washed off under running water.
If you don't happen to have rubber gloves, you can actually use rubber "gripper pads" — those rubber pads that you see being used to open vacuum-sealed jars–to "grip" the fibers off of your corn (via Lifehacker). In the event that you don't have gripper pads, you can also use rubber shelf liners in a pinch, and they'll do just fine.
You shouldn't have to worry about picking corn fibers or string from your teeth after dinner. You just have to get a good grip on the situation. But is there another kitchen tool that can play a surprisingly useful role in taking care of your corn problem?
You can also use your microwave to help remove corn silk
If you're out of clean rubber gloves, and you don't happen to have a jar opener lying around, then you may feel out of luck, stuck with those annoying silks. Fortunately, there's another trick you can do in conjunction with the gripping trick.
According to America's Test Kitchen, before you shuck your corn and peel the green leaves off it, cut the stalk end off with a knife while the corn is still "wrapped," roughly one inch above where the last row of kernels is. Place your corn in the microwave and heat it for around two to four minutes. As America's Test Kitchen explains, the moisture within the corn becomes steam, which allows the kernels and husks to separate cleanly. Once the corn ears are done microwaving, grab the corn and squeeze it, making sure to shake while you do so. As you shake, the corn will slide right out of the husk "pocket," free from any husks, fibers, or silk. Just be careful! That corn could be pretty dang hot.
If you're really pressed for time, you can also use a vegetable brush to quickly remove most, if not all, of those pesky fibers sticking to your ears of corn. Whatever you do, be it gripping, heating, or brushing your corn, you can take comfort in enjoying a delicious, buttery, and fiber-free ear of corn at your next dinner, whether that's southern fried corn or roasted corn salsa.