Did you steal my mother's yellow Tupperware spreader for the photo? Ha ha ha! Brings back memories. At my home, I now just eat the corn w/out butter, but sprinkled with S&P. If guests are over for dinner, then I set out the butter dish & cobs can go directly on it.

Never heard of such a thing! Not my bag.

i just butter mine with a knife.

Whatever happened to using a knife? Then again-I only put butter on my corn less than 1/2 the time so obviously this product isn't meant for me.

Jeez - I had no idea there was a product specifically designed for this purpose... I feel so sheltered!

From what I can tell since moving to the midwest, they just dunk the whole ear in a bucket/coffee can/other receptacle full of melted butter. (they do this w/burgers too - don't ask)

Meh--gadgets. I just dedicate a stick of butter to corn for the night--people can just roll their corn on top of it. At the end of the night, you can swipe off the bits of cornsilk, and it's fine.

We always cut a stick of butter in half, peeled about half of the paper off the cut end of the stick, then rubbed it all over our corn on the cob.

Now I'm partial to drizzing EVOO on my corn on the cob instead of using butter. Delicious!

Wow, I guess I've just been doing this wrong all my life. We just spread the butter with a knife...
For an even spread I just roll the corn in the melted butter that ends up on the plate.

As a midwesterner who has never "dunked a whole ear in a bucket of butter", I usually just use a knife. Occasionally as a guest in someone else's home we roll the ear of corn on a stick of unwrapped butter.

i prefer the martha stewart method: tear open a roll; spread with an obnoxious amount of butter; use buttered bread to swap cob.

I have never ever seen one of these in my life! I use a knife.

Seems like everyone who uses a knife for this task is doing it the hardest way possible?

We always just plunk a half-stick of butter on a plate and everyone can roll their cobs in it. doesn't get any easier than that!

Please don't let "EVOO" catch on.

I have also lived in the midwest most of my life and have never seen or heard of this bucket o' butter for the corn ears! And we eat a LOT of corn around here...

Like most others, we just dedicate a stick of butter for the corn to roll in. I've seen people put a huge blob of butter on a piece of bread and use that to spread it too, but then you have warm soggy bread to eat too, so less room for fresh corn.

We actually had one of those yellow thingies growing up, but I don't think anyone knew what it was, as it was always swimming around in the utensil drawer and never used.

Best way I've seen it done for lots of corn (and I mean a party dedicated to roast corn on the cob) was big glass jars with a lb of butter in each with hot water poured on top. Dunk the ear in and the water stays but the butter wraps around the corn. Awesome trick!

And having a grandma who lived with us and sold tupperware, we totally had t he butter spreader. Even weirder tupperware gadget was their tea bag squeezer. Took years for me to figure out how to use that one!

Bucket o' butter...HA!

Sounds like someone has been pulling your chain.

(it seems the butter-dipped phenomenon is a Wisconsin thing - this *is* still the Midwest, right?)

See: the Butter Burgers entry and Solly's, here in Milwaukee.

Trust me... I didn't *want* to see the bucket-o-butter(TM), but I did. More than once. Maybe it's the people I know...

Like ScottyT, we always just put butter on a plate - except we each had butter on our own plates, and then spread the leftover half-melted corn-y butter on bread afterwards.

I haven't witnessed the bucket of butter in Milwaukee. But I have had Solly's - way to much butter on that burger! Kopps down the street is better. (But I'm from MI originally so I prefer less butter on my burger.)

I think a knife works perfectly well for corn.

My grandfather did it the bread way, and that's the way I do it too. I'm from MI and he was from OH. No dunking that I have ever seen anywhere in my life. Must be a WI thing.

I've lived in Kansas most my life and have never dunked corn in a big container of melted butter, nor have I seen it done that way. I prefer just plain. The corn speaks for itself!

I also hate unitaskers so this butter thing would not be found in my kitchen!

Oh man, those yellow butter spreaders remind me of my childhood! My husband won me over to the midwestern way of buttering bread and using it to spread it on your corn. Edible tools ftw!

If the corn is very fresh, it's wonderful without butter or salt--much brighter flavor.

That said, I think my family buttered corn with a knife.

I cut the butter with a knife, but use a fork to spread it. Much less likely to slip off. But I can up with that myself, my family uses a knife.

you're kidding, right?

also, could someone please get rid of this awful spammer above? thanks!

Having plenty of butter around is kind of obnoxious. Although not as obnoxious as having to scroll through that spam to get to the bottom of the page. I've hardly ever eaten corn with butter on it. I've always gotten it at a roadside stand when it's still sweet and hasn't turned starchy yet. Don't buy corn at a supermarket if you can avoid it.
A little input on the 'midwest' butter pail or whatever. I moved to the midwest four years ago. The first summer living here in Indianapolis I went to the state fair and bought an ear of corn from a vendor. Before I could stop them, they dunked it into a big barrel or melted butter! I tried the corn and it was mealy corn masked in butter. Completely inedible. The next year I saw fried green tomatoes. Without thinking about how state fairs have a hard-on for frying everything, I ordered some of those, and again was horribly disappointed. The moral of the story is don't go to the Indiana State Fair if you don't like death-inducing food and having to wrestle your way through a mass of morbidly obese people who have gorged themselves on said food.

huh, I use a fancy thing called a knife.

I take a small chunk of butter, sprinkle salt and pepper on it then mash it up with a fork, then used the curved side of the fork to spread the butter on the corn.

That's the way my dad taught me, so that's the way it is done.

The boyfriend does the roll the corn in the stick of butter thing.

I live in TN. and went to a festival last week end where they sold roasted corn on the cob. They had HUGE buckets of country crock (hurl) with *get this* wooden paint brushes stuck in them to butter your corn with. Yes, welcome to the south. Oh, and the name of the corn stand was "mother shuckers" nice one!

Shiversbaby - please take your disgusting negativity elsewhere, no one wants to hear you complaining. If you don't like butter, don't read a post about butter.

I use a knife for butter, but I usually just rub mango powder (amchur) on my corn and nothing else which sounds weird but is really delish!

someone once gave me a fancy new butter/cheese spreader as a gift, but I have never used it....

That's one unitasker I'm seriously considering buying. I eat corn at least twice a week all spring and summer. There's a specific one basically shaves off ribbons of butter and can hold a whole stick. I'm thinking that might be good for buttering my Sunday morning toast as well. I never remember to pull the butter out of the fridge to soften, but this might make that unnecessary. I'll have to wait until I move this summer to see how much precious space I'll have in my kitchen.

Am I the only person on the planet who cuts her corn off the ear, then applies butter? I've been doing it that way since I was a kid.

Imagine my surprise when I went to a Chicago White Sox game and had essentially that-- cut off corn with butter, but also with the addition of lime, cayenne, cotija and mayonnaise. Holy crap, was that good.