One of our favorite things to do during summer weekends was to fire up the smoker, throw a big pork shoulder or beef brisket in there and let it cook for the afternoon. There is something about smoking meat that just makes it taste better. Perhaps it’s the anticipation of walking near the smoker during the day and catching a whiff of the delicious aromas coming from inside. Or just the slow-cooking process that keeps so much moisture inside. Or simply the dry rubs and sauces used to season and finally eat what you’ve been waiting on all day. But whatever it is, smoking became a regular past time in our house.

We also liked the fact that you don’t have to be inside cooking and instead can enjoy being outside doing other projects like gardening or just playing games with the family. Smoking is less intensive than grilling, where you need to be nearby all the time, and you can just check in on progress every 30 minutes or so to make sure heat is being maintained and things are going as you want them to. But let me get to the point already…

I don’t know how you and your family feel about corn on the cob, but in our house, everyone fights over the last kernel of corn. We’ve cooked corn on the cob in many ways, from the stove to the oven to the grill, but one of the absolute most delicious ways we have found to devour those little golden treats is smoking.

Some people smoke and grill their corn with the husks on, but I usually find this makes more of a mess and you can’t let the butter or olive oil really soak in if you keep the husks on. Plus you can add extra seasoning if you wrap up your corn in foil or precut the cobs so they are only half as big (which we find to be a big plus at dinner parties when people aren’t willing to commit to a whole ear of corn — or just can’t fit it on their plate with all the other BBQ and sides weighing it down!)

The following smoked corn on the cob recipe was our standard until we got rid of our smoker due to our move to the city. We’ve yet to find a place that really knows how to make good BBQ here in Berlin, but we haven’t yet given up hope. And in the interim, we’re just resorting to eating corn from the oven or boiled when we find it still on the cob. It’ll never be the same, but  sometimes it just has to do! 😉