Farmstands large and small dot Montauk Highway and the country back roads of the Mastics, Moriches, and Shirley area. The summertime bliss of sweet corn, steamed, grilled, cooked over a wood stove or embedded in ashes for a flavorful treat, has been delighting residents of Brookhaven town literally for centuries. August is sweet corn’s month.

Alice Ross, born in 1930, was one of our country’s first culinary historians. She opened a school in Smithtown called Alice Ross Hearth Studios in 1988, educating chefs and every-day cooks about early American techniques of hearth- and brick-oven cooking. Ross authored the out-of-print book, A Taste of Brookhaven: Four hundred years of history in the kitchen. It is an excellent compilation of age-old recipes.

“Corn oysters” were popular in the late 19th century. A corn oyster was essentially a corn fritter, so-named because it resembled an oyster after the batter hit a red hot, lard-splattering frying pan, sculpting “trails” resembling real fried oysters. It was essential to make corn oysters with “green corn.” What is green corn?

A fortuitous meeting with a group of farmers congregating at Hank Hulse’s farm on Barnes Road engendered a wonderful discussion that generally supported Alice Ross’s definition: “In Brookhaven, as elsewhere, the most prized form may have been the summer ‘green corn’ crop, the stage in which corn was ripe in a culinary sense — sweet and juicy — but horticulturally not yet mature (dry) enough to store and plant the following season.”

Our 21st-century corn stays fresh and sweet for days; however, the window was much shorter in the 19th century. Women were advised to “set up your kettle of water to heat, and when it is boiling, go out to the garden and quickly pick your corn. Running as fast as you can, get it back to the kitchen for immediate cooking. Should you stumble along the way, go back and pick fresh!”

The recipe on page 25 of A Taste of Brookhaven… yielded these delicious corn oysters. We are indebted to Ross, and to all those with a passion for agriculture who grow and share sweet corn in August. One of the farmers at Hank’s mused about the beautiful emerald green color of an ear’s outer husk. The poetic artistry of a cornfield beckoning from the roadside is the local farmer’s completed canvas.

Corn Oyster Fritters

  • 1 c. sifted flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 2 egg whites, beaten stiff
  • 2 cups fresh corn
  • 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup milk

Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and paprika. Add the corn, egg yolks, and milk. Fold in egg whites. Drop batter by spoonfuls into 1/2″ of hot shortening in a shallow skillet. Try a few at a time, browning on both sides. Drain on paper. Serves 6.

From Alice Ross, A Taste for Brookhaven, 400 years of history in the kitchen, page 25.