Comments on: Cutting a corn cob into smaller pieces

By: SCOTTtheBADGER

SCOTTtheBADGER — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 11:29:22 +0000

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!

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 21:12:34 +0000

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/

By: John Guilfoyle

John Guilfoyle — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 18:41:47 +0000

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.

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 04:23:36 +0000

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.

By: huxley

huxley — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 01:25:10 +0000

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

By: neo

neo — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 22:47:15 +0000

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.

By: RigelDog

RigelDog — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 22:16:44 +0000

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.

By: Roy Nathanson

Roy Nathanson — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 21:00:28 +0000

I haven’t tried it, but I am thinking a solid wack with a meat cleaver and then break it.

By: Surellin

Surellin — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 20:00:15 +0000

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. 🙂

By: expat

expat — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:27:39 +0000

I would try a chainsaw. Actually, it’s either corn on the cob for me, or kernels.