Cutting a corn cob into smaller pieces
That was my task last night.
I was making some of this, and as you can see the recipe requires that the ears of corn be cut into quarters, or at least into rather small pieces. I know how to halve corn—you just hold it on each end and break it—but that tends to create one smaller piece and one longer and thicker one. Holding that bigger piece and trying to break it the same way yielded a singular lack of success.
The recipes were no help. They just assumed the corn was already cut in small pieces. When I Googled “how do you cut corn cobs?” I got nothing but instructions on how to cut corn kernels off the cobs.
I wouldn’t think anyone would need any instruction for that. But instruction there was, and plenty of it.
So I tried something like “how do you cut a corn cob into smaller pieces?” I still got things like this video, which is called “How to chop corn” but only shows a person breaking corn cobs in half, boiling them, and then cutting the kernels off the cobs with a knife, or other recipes like this one from Martha Stewart which unhelpfully says, “Using a sharp knife, cut each ear of corn into 3 or 4 pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches long.”
Well gee whiz, Martha, I tried that. In fact, I tried every knife I own, serrated and non, and some of them are very sharp. But they didn’t make a dent.
I also found this discussion about the problem, where the participants seem equally divided between those who say “just use a sharp knife” and those who say “that doesn’t work.” It seems to hinge on the degree of sharpness. Or maybe something about the size of the corn. Or perhaps it’s the muscle of the cook; maybe I’m deficient in that area.
But I did find this video, which shows you how to break corn into three pieces rather than two. Quite clever, and perhaps sufficient to conquer the problem. I’ll have to wait till next time, though, because before I saw it I finally had given in and just made the recipe with halved corn cobs, broken by hand into a smaller piece and a larger piece.
I would use my machete as I have not a cleaver.
I often cut ears of corn in half. Figure out where you want the cut to be, take a knife and score it (i.e. cut into a cob a tiny bit, which is all my knives can manage) at the desired break point all the way around the ear, then use your hands to break it. You get a clean break where you scored it. Haven’t tried more than two pieces, but wouldn’t the same technique work? I will try it the next time I have corn on the cob.
Harpoon:
I tried that.
I think the only reason it works for halving corn is that halving corn is easy to do and can be done without it.
Have you ever tried the scoring technique for cutting it into smaller pieces? Because that did NOT work for me.
Or maybe you’re just stronger than I, or have sharper knives.
Sharper knives are the answer here. Dull ones are actually far more dangerous since you have to use too much force when cutting. Even dull knives are usually sharp enough to cut human flesh. I routinely cut corn into quarter-cob lengths with my chef knives with no problem, thanks to my grandfather who taught me years ago how to sharpen kitchen knives to a razor edge with Japanese water stones. There are good electric knife sharpeners on the market that do nearly as good a job, and every kitchen should have one to keep knives well-honed for safety.
Can’t one just use a hacksaw or something similar?
Into every life, a little rain must fall.
On the other hand Frogmore stew sounds like an at home version of a clambake. Sans clams and lobsters alas…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_71XlwDc8
THe proper way, i just taught my wife… so your in luck, it worked to cut a package of hard frozen sliced beef for shabu shabu… and it works for the corn cobs that we cut for shabu shabu.. .
first of all.. i spent the money over 30 years ago, to buy 2-3 good knifes
in this case, a wustoff chefs knife.. for you neo, they have a slightly undersized one
the proper technique is to put the cutting edge on the board, and then without lifting it, hold the corn, and bring down the knife slowly so that it is nearer to the handle than the middle, and bites where you want the cut to be and the corn will not move…
again, without lifting that point (this is actually important! its safer too)
you put the heel of your hend on the back of the blade between the point and nearer to the corn cob, and you basically lean on it while wiggling it a bit, once you get it its easy
my wife is around 100lbs… so, it works..
i like it because she is chinese and she does not use proper cutting technique
so sometimes its scary to watch her knowing thats gonna hurt if she slips
but she doesnt..
why?
all my knives are clean edged, good steel, and i sharpen them regularly and keep them very sharp (what a pain in the arse the japanese blade someone gave us with the broken handle… she was going to throw it out, but i did a top of the line fix job with it, including matching wood, and so on… what else could i do with a $600 sushi cleaver knife)
anyway.. sharper knives are safer…
they do what you want them to do, you dont fight with them, they are safer
grandad taught me when i was very young..
pissed mom off, but he was right
when i got married my wife wanted a cuisinart..
i said if you want you can get my old one back from mom
but, why dont you learn how to use the knife properly
which now she has..
she can do mostly what a cuisinart does in much less time and almost no clean up
funny
but thats how you do it..
everything in my description keeps everything always under your control and your fingers and other thigns out of the way…
this is not the same when i have to use the chinese cleaver or my grandads cleaver (over 10lbs each)… to cut a small hole in young cocanut so we can drink…
im quite good at it..
but its always nerve wracking.
more so as i was once a volunteer EMT.
🙂
Artfldgr:
Thanks for the tips.
It seems like my first step would be to get a better knife. Mine are pretty good, but apparently not good enough.
I would try a chainsaw. Actually, it’s either corn on the cob for me, or kernels.
Sharp is good. So is a longer knife. In all seriousness, if I needed to do this and couldn’t, I’d take a machete, put the corn under the middle of the blade, and push down with both hands on the ends of the machete – see, lots of leverage. You probably don’t keep a machete just off the kitchen, but I do. 🙂
I haven’t tried it, but I am thinking a solid wack with a meat cleaver and then break it.
I have cut corn into 4 pieces; it’s certainly not easy. I used our Santoku knife, which is our preferred large knife. It’s good quality but we don’t sharpen it because we are lazy slugs. I cut the cob in half first, then each piece in half again. Just put knife where you want to cut and work it in as far as you can. Then CAREFULLY put the hand that isn’t holding the knife on top of the knife and press down, continuing a sort of rocking motion. You’ll want to have the surface be non-slippery and be low enough that you can use your upper body to press down. Make sure your hands and body will be out of the way if the knife slips. You may need to rotate the cob and go at it from the other end, but on the same elliptical. I use a similar method to split spaghetti squash.
RigelDog:
I originally tried that method and it didn’t work, so I would assume that my knife wasn’t sharp enough, I’m not strong enough, or both.
Meanwhile MIT boffins have cracked the mystery of why one can’t simply break a dry stick of spaghetti into two pieces. Instead it breaks into two large pieces with some number of small shattered pieces from the center.
I’ve noticed this myself and wondered, but figured I must be buying cheap spaghetti.
https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-mathematicians-solve-age-old-spaghetti-mystery-0813
The video that’s at the first link (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/19481/frogmore-stew/) you give to the recipe shows a person cutting the corn starting at the 0.45 point, and he/she is using what looks like a very substantial cleaver-like knife, and with quite a bit of muscle power behind it.
It’s about raw force & strength…knife sharpness helps but power physics wins the day.
Been cutting cobs small since the oldest had her first 4 teeth…just under 20 years now.
I have a “high-tech” aid for cooking, hand-made by my Grandad over 40 years ago: it’s a wooden mallet, not unlike those used by sculptors.
I bury a heavy knife in the hard surface of a hard squash or corn-cob, and then hammer the back of the blade where it goes into the handle (or further out toward the point as needed).
https://www.dickblick.com/products/sculpture-house-wood-carving-mallets/
Art is right, you have to keep your knives SHARP. I sliced myself open using a new chisel in July. I had bought a new Irwin Marples chisel, and I forgot to hone it, and sure enough, it slipped, and opened my thumb!