Here’s an easy way to cut corn off the cob for freezing, bottling, or dehydrating. Power tools involved! I think you guys will especially enjoy this one.
In the past we’ve used a knife to get our blanched corn cut off the cob. It works pretty well although the straight knife cutting on the round cob was always a bit awkward and you had to cut down the length of the cob 5-6 times to get all the corn off. So last winter, when I saw one of these cutters in a magazine, I got online and ordered one. They are round and squeeze to the cob size to cut the corn off the cob in one swipe.
Then when my mom came out to visit last spring, she brought me this really great tool she’d found (maybe at a farm auction). It was the same tool only older (the green one on the left). And the diameter of the cutting circle was slightly smaller. I had a good laugh that after all our collective years of freezing corn, we came up with this same tool within months of each other. As she always told me–“great minds, all warped in the same direction”. Thanks, mom!
So last week when I had some corn to cut off the cob, I got out the handy tools thinking this would be quick. Well, it wasn’t quite what I expected. First of all, the cutters aren’t exactly sharp so it takes a lot of pressure to actually get the corn off the cob. One side is serrated, which makes it work better if you’re twisting the corn through the cutter rather than just pushing straight down on a cob of corn. What a pain both ways! I was beginning to think about going back to a knife when baby brother woke up and the corn job was over for the time being.
Sweet husband called later that afternoon and asked how the corn was going, so I let him know all my frustrations with the new cutters. Well, being a “fix it” type of guy, he did a little searching and when he got home he went out to the shop and built me this:
Crafty, no? Well, the next day the corn job went much faster! So here’s how this little tool helps get your corn off the cob the easy way. And did I mention it’s fast?
You’ll need:
*Corn that has been blanched so it’s ready to cut off the cob (you could use raw corn if you’re going to bottle it)
*Drill that goes in forward and reverse
*Fancy screw corn tool like sweet husband made (he’ll make you one, too. Scroll to the end of the post!)
*Corn cutter like pictured above
*And some kind of large bucket or bin to catch the corn
Step 1: Attach the corn tool to the drill and snug that chuck up on it.
Step 2: With the drill in forward, screw the long screw into the base of an ear of corn. You’ll want it screwed in all the way to the guard. The straighter you have your ear of corn on the screw the better, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t work as well screwing into the tip of the cob as the base of it, so you may need to cut off any residual stem parts left over from shucking to get a good surface to screw into.
Step 3: Over your bucket or bin, drill the corn through the cutter held in your other hand. You’ll be squeezing the cutter to the corn cob size as you drill and you’ll actually want to hold the whole contraption sort of IN the bin so it catches all the corn and juice. It gets a bit messy. Oh, and wear an apron. You might even want to do this all outside for easier clean up.
You can squeeze the cutter pretty snug, but if it’s too tight the corn won’t turn and you’ll strip your corn cob.
Step 4: When you’ve got the corn through the cutter, stop the drill and pull the cob back out of the cutter. It should slide out easily.
Step 5: Put the drill in reverse, grab the naked cob, and unscrew your corn tool from the cob. You could skip step 4 and your cutter tool will just fall off into the bin as you unscrew your cob.
Step 6: Put the drill in forward and start on the next cob. Slick.
This was taking me about 10-12 seconds per cob start to finish.
The corn drill bit tool is not stainless steel, so wash it and dry it right after you’re done using it. And if you don’t have a crafty sweet husband, mine said he’d make you one of these awesome tools for only $9.00 which includes shipping it to you. Check my shopping page or email me if you’re interested and we’ll get you set up for some serious corn cutting fun!
Happy corn harvest! :)
Keep preparing! Angela
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That’s so novel! Might even make the job fun :)
Have you tried just an electric carving knife?
Works great – very easy :)
That is ingenious. You are so lucky to have a handy husband. Had the neighborhood gathered to watch or have their own corn cut from the cob? I have got to have one of those, later.
Great piece. Can’t wait to give this a try. This is a great site.
Wow…. Very creative, I want to try this out now! It reminds me of Tim the Tool Man Taylor and how he supercharged everything. Can’t imagine what he would do with a barrel warmer… Probably turn it into a jacuzzi.
Hi, just a quick note. Your husband did a nice job and the tool looks so helpful. But, thought I would share this. I also struggled with cutting the corn from the cob. Time is always an issue, along with chasing the corn, etc. This year, I used an electric knife and did a bushel in 20 minutes once it was cleaned. That included the time it took to scrape each cob for the creamed portion.
Nice Blog, good information. I will be back again to see what else I can glean from your sharing of time and efforts.
Thanks for your work.
Debbie
I have used this tool for quite a few years, the way I do it is similar, my hubby cut a 2×4 long enough to fit over my bowl and drove a long nail through the center, I put plastic wrap around the board and then set on the bowl, I then put the cob on the nail and use the cobbing tool to take corn off, pull off empty cob and on to the next one.
How do I contact you to get one of these devices??
You can order at the bottom of my shopping page here: http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/shop-with-me/
What is the brand name of the cutter? I found one on Amazon but it had poor reviews. I’m thinking that using the drill might make it last longer and not tear up.
I saw a video of this on Youtube….was that your video?
Thanks for the tip. I’ll go vote for you!
I’m not sure what the brand of the cutter is, but they’re pretty tough to use just by themselves–not very sharp. The drill definitely helps. The youtube video was not mine. Thanks for the vote! :)