Late-Corn Chowder

Every September there’s a week where we look at the corn and know it’s the last of it. This is the pot that week gets. Chowder asks a little more of the corn than boiling it does — and pays it all back. The trick nobody taught us until too late: simmer the stripped cobs in the pot. Half the corn flavor is still in there.

What you need

• 6–8 ears of sweet corn
• 3–4 medium potatoes, diced (any root vegetable can join them)
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups water
• 1½ cups goat milk or whole cow’s milk
• Salt and black pepper
• Bacon, if there’s bacon

How we do it

Stand each ear in a wide bowl and cut the kernels off, then run the back of the knife down the cob to press out the milky bits — that’s flavor, don’t leave it. Put the bare cobs in a pot with the 4 cups of water and simmer them 20 minutes while you do everything else. Then fish them out and keep that corn broth.

If you’re using bacon, cook a few chopped slices in your soup pot first and set the crispy bits aside, leaving the fat. Otherwise start with the butter. Cook the onion in it until soft, add the potatoes and the corn broth, and simmer until the potatoes are just tender, 10–12 minutes.

Add the kernels and cook 5 minutes more. Stir in the milk and warm it through without boiling. Now the move that makes it chowder instead of corn soup: scoop out a couple cups, blend them smooth, and stir them back in. Thick, but with plenty left whole to chew on. Salt and pepper until it tastes like the end of summer, and top with the bacon.

When the corn’s gone, it’s gone — this recipe waits until next August. That’s the deal with eating in season, and honestly it’s what makes the first bowl worth the year.

Photo: tomatoes and friends, Flickr, CC BY 2.0.