Butter for Corn on the Cob

You need this butter on your corn because it was specifically created with flavors that go perfectly with corn. It’s going to be the best corn on the cob you’ve ever had!

Video: Making Butter For Corn

Why Make Special Butter For Corn?

Just plain butter is amazing on corn on the cob, of course, and I love a good garlic butter on there too. Actually, this butter with fresh herbs that I created to go on steak is seriously amazing on corn as well. But the butter in the recipe below was designed specifically to go with corn and contains flavors that are so so so good with corn. It’s perfect spread on Air Fryer Corn on the Cob or to enhance simple Boiled Corn on the Cob.

I love it best spread on corn on the cob, but you could absolutely make an easy side dish by using frozen corn kernels and mixing in some of this butter recipe.

Flavors That Pair With Corn In This Butter

As a first step when trying to decide what to put in my corn on the cob butter, I looked at the Flavor Bible. If you’re not familiar, it’s an amazing resource that lists ingredients alphabetically and then suggests other ingredients that pair well.

When I looked up corn in that book, I didn’t get very far in the list of pairing though because I quickly found that bacon, cilantro, and chipotle are great matches, and I was excited to dive in and try it. I added in garlic, some salt, and a pinch of sugar, and it was seriously perfect. 

• Bacon and Bacon Fat: To make this butter, you’ll cook up some bacon and then crumble that bacon into the butter mixture. You’ll add some of the bacon fat as well. If you have already cooked bacon and no bacon fat, then just add an extra strip of bacon. If you have bacon fat but no bacon, use 3 tablespoons of bacon fat.
• Garlic: Instead of fresh, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.
• Fresh Cilantro: If you don’t have fresh cilantro, you can skip it. Or, you can use a quarter teaspoon of lime zest instead. That gives a similar fresh zing.
• Chipotle Chili Powder: A little smoky heat. Regular chili powder can be used instead of the chipotle chili powder or use a quarter teaspoon of the liquid from a can of chipotles in adobo. I often have a container of this in my fridge from when I open a can and only use a little bit, like for this coleslaw for fish tacos recipe.
• Salt: Of course corn and salt go together. You can make it even better though by using smoked sea salt. It kind of gives you the smokiness you get from grilling corn. So if you’re not grilling but want some of that flavor, I suggest making that substitution.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter because bacon is salty, and also this way I can add the smoked sea salt and not end up with butter that’s too salty. If you have salted butter, then omit the salt, mix everything up, taste it, and then add salt to taste. The reason is that different brands of butter have different amounts of salt.
• Sugar: Yes, there’s sugar in there. Why? Read on…

Should I Add Sugar To Corn?

The sugar is something I do often with sweet corn, like in my boiled corn recipe and my air fryer corn recipe. I learned from my mom that sugar brings out the natural sweetness of the corn, or adds to it, making it taste like the freshest best corn every time (even when your corn is just mediocre).

If I’m boiling corn, the butter goes in the water. If I’m not, then it gets sprinkled lightly onto the corn before cooking or, like in the recipe below, added to the butter. You won’t know it’s there, but the corn will taste better than ever.

The advice then is that if you’re cooking your corn with sugar already, or if you don’t think you’ll like the sweetness, then don’t add sugar. If you’re not cooking your corn with sugar already and you think you like the sweetness of corn to be intensified, then add it in.

More Delicious Corn Recipes

If you want to try some different flavors on your corn on the cob, try my Mexican Elote recipe or Corn on the Cob with Parmesan. When you don’t have fresh corn, try one of these other recipes.

• Creamed Corn Recipe
• Easy Corn Salad
• Creamy Summer Corn Salad
• Corn Pudding