FRIED CORN (COUNTRY STYLE CREAMED CORN)

Steps:

• Husk corn, making sure to remove all silks. Do not cut off the stem end of the ear.
• Holding the stem of the corn, using a sharp straight blade type knife - you don't need a huge knife, just something sharp. From experience I can tell you that a small paring knife won't work. Something about the length of a boning knife is best. Hold corn over a large skillet (best to prop the ear of corn against the bottom of the pan, and begin cutting the kernels, so that they fall into the pan. Once all kernels are removed, take the back of a butter knife, and scrape it against all sides of the corn, you'll notice pulp and a milky liquid, keep scraping until nothing is coming out, then turn the corn so you are holding the tip, with the stem end in the pan, and repeat this process. Don't worry it's impossible to scrap the ear too much. Repeat with the remaining corn.
• Add the butter and bacon drippings to the pan, and add the cup of water. If one cup doesn't cover the corn, just add a little more, til the corn is just barely cover with water. Add a few dashes of salt and a dash of pepper.
• Turn heat to medium low, cover the pan, and cook until it comes to a boil (if you want to rush this process, just turn the heat up a little. But keep and eye on it, you don't want it to boil dry at this point.
• Let it boil about 10 to 15 minutes, then reduce heat to the lowest setting your stove has. Remove the lid and continue to cook, until all water is absorbed and/or evaporated. I recommend tasting the corn, just before you start to cook down the water, and decide if it needs more butter or salt, and if necessary add a bit more to taste. Personally I've never measured the amount. My granny taught me this recipe and she never measured anything. This final cooking stage is very important, you want to cook it slow, to help the natural sugar in the corn start to caramelize a bit. Once the water gets pretty low, you want to keep a close eye on it, and stir often. You'll notice when it's close to done, you'll be scraping sort of a thick juice from the bottom of the pan. (my best quess is this is the caramelized fluid, but also the stuff that you scraped from the ears).