What Is the Best Way To: Get All the Silk Off Sweet Corn?

It's sweet corn season, and oh boy. We've been over-indulging, if that is even possible. Grilled sweet corn and lots and lots of corn and tomato salads have been on the menu nearly every night. But this brings us to a question we'd like to ask: What is the very best way to get all that pesky corn silk off the ear? What do you do to remove the last stray hairs of silk from your sweet corn?

Do you rub it? Wash it? Or do you just tolerate a bit of corn silk in your teeth?

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(Image: Flickr member Sister72 licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (13)

Rub it. I hold it horizontally in my hands and rub the cob vigorously. I've also used a soft brush.

sara moulton says to keep around a spare toothbrush for this exact task. i usually just pull off as many as i can and just deal with it. brush and floss right afterward- it's part of the experience!

Use a rubber band. Search for "Rachel Rey Shucks Corn" and see how to do it.

I rub it with my hand while holding the ear under running water and it gets almost all of it off.

foodiebuddha - That needs to be an animated gif. I'm sure it's been done. The look on RR's face is priceless.

I use a soft vegetable brush (it's bigger than a toothbrush, and thus a little faster) and brush under running water from tip to stem. That really does get all of them.

I use water and a veggie brush. Whatever is left over I just deal with.

My dad recently visited and he told me to use a microfiber cloth. It seemed to work pretty well. I still had to go floss after supper.

Definitely a towel or a cloth. That's what's always worked for me.

Cut across the bottom of the ear, removing the shucks and exposing the bottom layer of kernels and silk. Then, remove the silk off from bottom up--it'll come off almost completely!

I agree with the toothbrush idea. I have one dedicated to corn that hides in the back of my gadgets drawer until we need it. Just want to be sure it is very soft, so it doesn't damage the kernels. If I don't have one handy, I gently rub off what I can, and then pick off the rest of the big stuff. After it cooks, anything left on there usually comes off pretty easy.