Stanley Tucci Has a Genius Tip for Buttering Corn

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I haven’t read Stanley Tucci’s memoir yet. More specifically, I haven’t read either of the award-winning actor and New York Times-bestselling author’s memoirs, which is surprising considering I aspire to live my life just like him: sipping negronis and eating pasta every evening.

Both books are officially on my must-read list for 2025, but in the meantime, I jumped at the chance to listen to a recap of his first memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food, on one of my favorite podcasts, Celebrity Memoir Book Club. While the hosts weren’t as enthusiastic about Tucci’s book as everyone else has been, they did emphasize that one tip he gave stood out to them — and I’ll be incorporating it into my own cooking, especially during peak corn season.

In this 2021 memoir, Tucci reflects on many of the food moments he shared with his family while growing up. Among them is a simple but poignant recollection of something so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. As Tucci recalls, “The buttering of the corn… well, it wasn’t just ‘put knife into butter, put butter on corn with knife.’ No. No. Good God. No. A piece of homemade bread was buttered and then used to slather the salted ear of corn, thus, in true Italian fashion, creating two dishes out of one, the ear of corn being the first dish and the homemade bread (now saturated with the melted butter, salt, and sweetness from the buttered kernels) being the second.”

Related: How to Make a Negroni, According to Stanley Tucci

This is a much more romantic way of saying that the Conclave star and his family butter corn on the cob through the following process: First, salt your ears of corn. Next, spread a generous amount of butter on a piece of homemade bread. Then, use the buttered bread to spread butter on the corn.

This isn’t just a fun technique for buttering corn, but also a way to subtly infuse the bread with extra flavor from — as Tucci points out — melted butter, salt on the corn, and the subtly sweet taste of the corn. It might sound silly, but corn has a naturally sweet and juicy flavor that can easily be infused into other ingredients and dishes, like corn ice cream. It won’t radically change the flavor of your piece of bread, but it will make a difference — and everything will have more butter on it, which is always a good idea.

If you want to take your corn on the cob and accompanying buttered bread up a notch, I would recommend using cultured butter with a high butterfat content. Cultured butter will have a more tangy and complex flavor, thanks to bacterial cultures, and a higher butterfat content ensures that the dairy has an ultra-rich and luxurious taste.

Related: The 1 Thing You’ll Never See in a Stanley Tucci Recipe

Any cultured European butter—like a French beurre de barrette—would work well because it has a butterfat content of 82% or higher (compared with many butters in the United States, which often have a fat content of less than 82%). However, American dairies like Vermont Creamery also make delicious European-style butters.

I’ll be buying some butter, corn, and bread, so I can have a Tucci-worthy feast this weekend. And I’ll be especially committed to this new hack all summer long, while enjoying the best of sweet corn season.

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