Sweetcorn

[Will Reyer]

Sweetcorn: The One Hour Design/Build Will Reyer 08/13/22

The sweetcorn is on in southern Michigan. We no longer raise our own but purchase a dozen a day, eat a couple for supper on the cob, and then Pam puts up the rest in plastic bags for the freezer, to access in the winter, after cutting the kernels off the cob.

The other day on the Net I ran across a guy pushing the boiled ears through the center hole of a metal angel food cake mold, operated upside down. Cobs got pushed down through the hole, kernels fell off into the bowl of the mold. He was setting the mold on a sink corner so the cobs fell down into the sink. Really speedy production compared to the standard tedium of cutting kernels off the cob with a knife.

I sent the URL to Pam who promptly ordered an angel food cake mold before I had a chance to opine that it was probably a gimmick because corn cobs can't all be the same diameter. The mold arrived the next day (Amazon). It looked more doomed to failure to me than what I saw on the Net. The center hole had a flange decreasing the diameter at the end of the center column, which has a draft angle on it. She tried a few yesterday, though, and it appeared to work. Wonder of wonders, even old geezers can sometimes learn new tricks.

Since she's got neuropathy in her hands I thought I might improve on holding the mold on a sink corner while using the other hand to push the corn cobs. Toward this end I did a quick and dirty one hour design/build utilizing the cutouts of 3/4” plywood from making female molds for OM guitars.

The other component is a standard 5 gal. plastic bucket like sheet-rock compound comes in, available empty also at any big-box do-it-yourselfer place. The sheetrock screws providing alignment were supplemented by adding an #8-32 x 2” screw (not shown) with flat washers and nut between the screws at each of the 4 locations to hopefully provide more resistance to the down pressure of the corncobs.

The caveat here is that we've only done a limited test sample, but if you have an angel food cake mold it ought to be worth a try. Your mileage may vary. Photos attached.

[Dave Bagwill]

Nice!! Corn is 'in' here in the Rogue Valley and that device would serve us well.
As it is, Ronda eats it right off the cob and I use a contraption.
https://supplyleader.com/attach_files/1 ... 6d0b43.jpg

[Will Reyer]

Yeah, you can skip this if you think cobs will push thru the center hole of the angel food cake mold.

Pam got some to push through the other day, but I watched her do a dozen tonight and none would go through all the way. Plus the juice squirts everywhere. None of today's dozen went more than a little of the way through.

But she was just microwaving them, not boiling the ears, though I doubt that would make them pass thru such a small diameter hole anyway.

What it was good for was it makes a good container for catching the kernels if you cut them off with a knife, per standard practice. You can scrape a few off of the small end of the cob, and then you can cut with a knife, retaining the small end in the hole, and the cake mold catches the production well. Do it outdoors, the kernels squirt!

[Will Reyer]

Don't waste your time. Pam pushed a few cobs through the center hole in the angel food cake mold the other day, but none of the dozen she bought today would fit. Juice squirting everywhere.

What it does do well is provide a grip on the small end of the cob, in the center hole of the cake mold, while you cut the kernels off with a knife and they fall into the mold. And, better done outdoors, hah!

[Kevin in California]

When i was a kid my folks would buy dozens of corn
and boil it to put up in the freezer. My Dad made a gizmo i think using a hacksaw blade that he curved into a half round shape and mounted to a board. They'd run the cooked corn over the blade and it would strip off the kernels just right so they were whole. They'd put them in freezer bags. I can sort of picture the gizmo in my mind, it was pretty simple.
I remember it was a day long project. We'd eat corn on the cob for lunch and dinner!

Sorry no picture. That was 60 years ago!

[Will Reyer]

Kevin, yeah I can see that. Splaying the legs of the bent saw blade a little bit to make it parabolic would accomodate a great range of corncob sizes. Or, maybe bend it all the way around to make a circle of size to accomodate all cobs.

We've always just done it with a knife. Got to watch your fingers I expect in any case. Sounds like your Dad liked to have corn in the winter as much as we do.