Smoking with Corn Cobs


 
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Kevin K

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Hi All,

This has nothing to do with pipes, so Stogie can can skip this thread (unless he has the info I need!).

I was watching Good Eats the other day and Alton Brown made mention of using Corn Cobs instead of smoke wood while grilling. Just wondering if anyone has tried this in a smoker, and what kind of flavors you would get.

Thanks,

Kevin
 
K,

I used corn cobs in the Spiral-Sliced Ham - Sugar Glazed topic. I used small, dried pieces. They burned too fast. Whole, wet cobs would have been better. I used them in addition to smoke wood, so I couldn't tell if they added any taste.

Give it a try on a Christmas ham using only corn cobs and let us know. That Lawry's creamed corn would go OK with ham, right? There's your source for cobs. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Chris
 
I was wondering where one would find a supply of corn cobs.
Thanks for the clue.

-- Ken
 
Yeah, make a dish that requires corn cut from the cob, then refrigerate or freeze the cobs and use them in the smoker. I dried mine in the oven, vacuum packed them, and used them months later. They just burned up in no time flat. Moist cobs would have been better.

Regards,
Chris
 
Being from Iowa, I have easy access to fresh corncobs between sweet corn coming on in July and when field corn harvest is finished in November. I've experimented with using them in the smoker and on the grill.

Like the others have reported when used for smoking, they dry out very quickly and burn too easily to contribute much smoke. They can be wrapped in an airtight container when they’re fresh and held until needed but mold and rapid spoilage are a real possibility unless they’re frozen. And that strikes me as a lot of trouble for something that’s a marginal smoking flavor at best.

I believe corncobs are better suited as a fuel for grilling where hot, fast heat is called for. A two-inch thick pork chop grilled over a hot bed of cobs, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and eaten caveman style holding the bone is one of the finest things around, IMHO.

I don’t know of any commercial sources for whole corncobs if anybody would like to give them a try. Ground corncobs are used in a lot of the packaged small animal bedding found in pet stores. But who knows what else is included in those bags?

Of course, part of the fun of cooking with corncobs is the shocked looks of your hillbilly relatives when they see what you're doing with their "moon floss" supply. Have a great weekend.

Ken
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ken Nelson:
[qb]Of course, part of the fun of cooking with corncobs is the shocked looks of your hillbilly relatives when they see what you're doing with their "moon floss" supply.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I don't laugh at too many posts, but that just made me laugh out loud! Too funny.

Thanks for the info,
Chris
 
KCBS Changed the rules a few weeks ago to allow corn cob "Pellets" in pellet cookers as a legal heat source. Someone fron Nebraska requested the rule change. Be interesting to see how they do.
 
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