I’ve always boiled ears of corn, but when I was researching methods for boiling, I came across a variety of roasting methods, too. For a couple of weeks, I was eating a lot of corn, trying all these ways to cook it! I hope you can use these tips for cooking and serving some of your best ears.
Your choices when boiling ears of corn include whether to add salt or sugar to the water, or even lemon juice. You can also leave the pan uncovered or covered, with the water boiling or the burner turned off. After you have tried a few methods, you will know which ones work for you.
Using lemon juice will brighten the color of the corn. Adding sugar to the water will sweeten the corn, which I find isn’t usually necessary. Corn is so sweet on its own! Salt helps the water boil and might add a small amount of saltiness to the flavor of the corn. Salt can even be omitted altogether and ears of corn can just be boiled in plain water for 5 to 7 minutes.
When oven roasting the corn ears, you can leave the husks on or off, wrap the corn in foil, or leave the corn bare – without husks or aluminum foil. You also have the choice to butter (with vegan butter) the corn (or not) and to sprinkle it with salt, pepper, or herbs and spices.
If you want to add a variety of flavors to your corn, you can use flavored vegan butters for the roasting process or when serving. Try adding garlic, orange zest, basil, thyme, or cayenne pepper to melted butter, then brushing it onto the corn before roasting. You can also serve these flavored vegan butters with the corn. At our house, we’ve tried garlic, thyme and cayenne pepper (individually) and really enjoyed them all! The flavored vegan butter works for roasting corn both wrapped and unwrapped.
If you are making roasted corn with the husks on, you might want to peel the husks back, remove all the silks, then fold the husks back up. While you have the husks peeled back, you can butter and season the ears of corn. You can also leave the silks on, it just makes for a messier time while eating.
I’ve tried every method listed below, and every time the corn came out fully cooked and very tasty. You almost can’t go wrong when boiling or roasting corn! Enjoy!
| Servings |
ears of corn
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- 6 ears fresh corn husks removed, silks pulled off, stem ends cut off
- 8 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 ears fresh corn husks removed, silks pulled off, stem ends cut off
- 8 cups water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 6 ears fresh corn husks removed, silks pulled off, stem ends cut off
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ears fresh corn
- vegan butter for rubbing and for serving
- garlic, orange zest, basil, thyme, cayenne pepper or other herbs to add to the butter for baking or for serving
Ingredients
Boiling Method No. 1
Boiling Method No. 2
Boiling Method No. 3
Roasting Methods No. 1, 2 & 3
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- Bring 8 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil. Carefully drop the ears of corn into the boiling water.
- Cook the corn in the uncovered pan for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Carefully remove the corn from the boiling water with kitchen tongs and serve immediately.
- Stir the lemon juice and sugar into 8 cups of boiling water until the sugar completely dissolves.
- Carefully place the ears of corn into the boiling water.
- Cover the pan, turn off the heat and leave the pan on the burner, letting the corn cook in the hot water for 10 minutes.
- Carefully remove the corn from the hot water with kitchen tongs and serve immediately.
- Bring 8 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil.
- Carefully place the ears of corn into the boiling water.
- Cover the pan and let the water return to a boil. Then turn off the heat, leaving the pan covered. No need to remove it from the burner.
- Allow the corn to cook in the covered pan for 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove the corn from the hot water with kitchen tongs and serve immediately.
- Preheat your oven to 400° F. Remove all husks and silks from the ears of corn and cut off any stem ends. Rinse and pat dry if necessary.
- Rub each ear of corn all over with vegan butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Lay the ears of corn side by side in a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish or on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Roast 35 to 40 minutes, turning halfway through. If you want the corn a little bit blackened, cook it under the broiler for a minute or two, watching carefully and rotating it.
- Serve with additional vegan butter and salt.
- Preheat your oven to 425° F. Remove all husks and silks from the ears of corn and cut off any stem ends. Rinse and pat dry if necessary.
- Rub vegan butter and seasonings or salt and pepper on each ear of corn.
- Wrap each ear of corn in aluminum foil.
- Roast for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Carefully unwrap the corn before serving or let each guest unwrap their own on their plate.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place unhusked ears of corn directly onto the oven rack, without removing silks. Or pull the husks back, remove the silks, and replace the husks on the ear of corn.
- If you remove the silks, you have the option to butter the ears of corn and add seasonings and salt and pepper before pulling the corn husks back up.
- If you are adding vegan butter inside the corn husks, place the ears on a baking sheet to roast. If not buttering the corn, it can roast directly on the oven rack.
- Roast for 30 minutes.
- Carefully remove the corn husks from the hot corn before serving, or let each person shuck their corn at their plate.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Leave any feedback in comments below. Also, share your comments on Instagram: @key_lime_coconut or on Twitter: @keylime_coconut. We love seeing hashtags #keylimecoconut and #keylimecoconutblog when you try our recipes.
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