Putting The Corn in Corningware

Have you seen the "Easiest Way To Cook Corn"? It's from Cait Hates Cake and is all over Pinterest (which is where it caught my eye). I wasn't even looking for a new method for cooking corn... we always just grill them on the Weber alongside the rest of the meal. They're pretty darned awesome that way, but a bit of work to remove the silk while leaving the husks on and then re-wrapping. And that was precisely what intrigued me about this oven method... the simplicity. The corncobs cook whole and un-shucked, and  separate easily from both husk and silk when they're done... oh yeah, and they're cooked to perfection.

Aw, Shucks

Well, the corn we bought came pre-shucked and clean as a whistle. Wah! (Such a problem, right?). So I wrapped each naked corncob in foil and went ahead with baking them according to the "Easiest Way To Cook Corn", which is 30 minutes at 350°F... They were indeed cooked to perfection. 

Foiled Again
But what if you don't want to use all that foil just for cooking a few ears of corn? What if you don't want to cook food in aluminum foil period? Wrap it in something else! So with the next few ears, I wrapped each one in parchment paper, twisted the ends, and baked them just like the others... And they were cooked to perfection.

Sticker Shock
But what if you're on a tight budget and the thought of all that pricey parchment paper makes you cringe? Well, that's where the Corningware comes in. It's re-useable. I lined up the ears of corn in my casserole dish, put the lid on, and cooked it the same as the others. The results were less than stellar. However, 15 more minutes in the oven did the trick... They too, were cooked to perfection.

Cooking Pre-Shucked (naked) Corn-On-The-Cob In The Oven

• Wrapped individually in foil...  30 minutes at 350°F

• Wrapped individually in parchment paper... 30 minutes at 350°F

• Single layer of corncobs in lidded casserole dish... 45 minutes at 350°F 

Why Bother?

This may all seem like a non-issue; yet another solution to a non-existent problem. After all, corn on the cob is the epitome of summer food, and who wants to heat up their house by cooking it in the oven when the rest of the meal is being grilled in the back yard? I thought that too. Then I realized that sometimes there isn't room on the grill for everything. Sometimes the weather isn't all it could be. Sometimes we don't have any charcoal. And sometimes I don't care if the house heats up... after all, we're eating outside!

So has anyone has tried the "Easiest Way To Cook Corn" (as seen on Pinterest)? Does it work? Do you have an easier method? Pipe up in the comments and let me know... I'm all ears!