If all the sun and fun of summer can be captured in one single mouthful, it must be fresh sweet corn on the cob slathered in butter. Shauna Lee Strecker smiles as she recalls summer vacation stops at farm stands near Marietta, Ohio.
“We’d pick up fresh corn and take it to my grandfather’s house,” she says. “It got boiled and served with butter, salt and pepper, and fresh tomatoes. It was a sweet meal.”
In August, Strecker opened Bella La Crema Butter Shoppe and Dairy Market at 931 Main St. in Longmont. This successor to her original Lyons location may be the only bar in Colorado where you can do a butter tasting.
The business is built around the real butter Strecker churns and cultures herself weekly using fresh-from-the-farm cream. Simply put, Strecker’s creations taste more buttery.
“It started when I wanted to eat healthy and I began making cultured butter from scratch,” she says. “The flavor was amazing, too. I had an aha moment: ‘This is what has happened to our food.’ I decided to make butter beautiful again.”
Strecker crafts a dozen or more highly inventive spice and herb compound butters every week. Her Ode to Neruda blends rich cultured butter with smoked paprika, garlic, onions and lime. On the sweet side, her spreadable Dreamlette balances juniper, lavender, lemon, vanilla, nutmeg and sugar.
Use them anywhere you’d put plain grocery store butter: spread on toast, to sauté meat and seafood, or melted on steaming corn.
Bella La Crema’s most entertaining product is the Butter Snob. Similar to solid deodorant dispensers, it discreetly provides artisan butter when you aren’t at home and have a cob to butter.
A perfect corn on the cob moment
The key to experiencing buttered corn ecstasy is to stop thinking of corn and butter as cheap commodity foods. Treat them like a rare seasonal gift — and one that sadly fades fast as September advances.
After consulting with local experts, here are some tips for making corn the centerpiece of a memory-making summer feast.
Picking great ears: When buying fresh corn at a farm stand or supermarket, avoid ears and silk that look dried out. While giant ears are admittedly attractive, slightly smaller ears will tend to have more tender corn kernels.
Boiled, nuked or grilled: On a recent summer afternoon, the folks at Munson’s Farm roadside stand in Boulder offered simple advice to the folks lined up to buy dozens of ears: “Just boil it, but not too long.”
To boil corn, bring an oversized pot of water with a large dose of salt to a boil and then drop in shucked ears. Turn off the heat when the water comes to a boil again. Cover and let them sit for five minutes or so before serving.
To grill corn on the cob, Strecker recommends pulling back the husk, removing the silk and rubbing the cob with butter and seasonings before pulling the husk back on. Cook on a hot gas, pellet or charcoal grill for about 12 minutes covered, rotating ears every few minutes.
A better butter: These last cobs of summer deserve the best butter you can afford. Good butter is no more expensive than decent cheese.
Among the better high-butterfat, unsalted supermarket brands are Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, Beurre D’Isigny French Butter, Organic Valley Unsalted Cultured Butter and Plugrà European-style butter.
Superior salt and pepper: It’s a mystery why, but corn tastes better slathered in unsalted butter and then sprinkled with salt, rather than using salted butter.
Don’t use common extra fine salt. Do use larger crystal or kosher salt. Better yet, try fleur de sel, a better-tasting, French-style flaked salt perfect for finishing foods like corn on the cob because it retains its mineral-y crunch.
How old is that black sawdust in your pepper shaker or grinder? Do yourself a flavor and pick up fresh peppercorns to grind and add depth of flavor and zing.
The aftermath: If you cut kernels from cobs, delay the composting. First, simmer corn cobs covered in water, broth or milk for 45 minutes and strain to enjoy a creamy corn stock for soups, sauces and stews.