Grilled Corn with Miso Butter and Sesame Salt

We balance the toasty sweetness of grilled corn with the creamy-salty richness of butter, miso, sesame and salt. To keep the cooking simple, we borrow cookbook author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s clever idea of using a disposable aluminum pan to contain the ears on the grill. We first steam the corn in the pan so the kernels remain plump, then char the butter-coated ears directly over the fire. For maximum flavor, we like sake as the steaming liquid, but water works, too. Scallions and sesame salt, called gomashio in Japanese, are the final flourish. Gomashio is a multipurpose seasoning—sprinkle it on rice, stir-fries and grilled foods of all sorts. Sesame seeds packaged in jars and sold on the supermarket spice rack usually are hulled. We prefer unhulled seeds—they are larger, rounder, appear more plump, and have a richer, nuttier flavor.