This corn chowder -- with a boost from barbecue sauce butter -- is inspired by that beautiful mess of summer-specific flavor

What sights, sounds, smells and sensations do you associate with backyard cookouts? This recipe for a creamy corn chowder with barbecue sauce butter is inspired by memories of the backyard cookouts my family held when I was growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Memory is mutable, my friend Gayatri reminds me. It's a comforting fact that no oral recollection - not mine, not yours - is perfect. There's beauty in that. I believe I remember the summer cookouts of my childhood with the clarity of a snapshot, that I can conjure the color of the Midwestern sky, the grill marks on the chicken legs, the smoke in the air. The minuscule bits of corn that splattered onto my cheeks after I bit into a buttered ear.

I love these memories. But I cannot tell you what day or month in the mid-'90s I am remembering, who was there, what I was wearing, if I stayed up late to watch the lightning bugs, or whether the barbecue sauce was the store brand or Sweet Baby Ray's. Why do I remember some specifics but not all of them? It reminds me of what Maya Angelou said about how people may not remember what you say or do, but they'll always remember how you made them feel.

Marvin Gaye or Carole King was probably playing in the background, but the sound I remember best from these cookouts was the sticky click of someone peeling a paper plate off the stack. We ate off the cheapest paper plates, the white ones with the little grooves on the rim. They saved my parents from doing hours of dishes, but they did a terrible job of containing food. If you had anything on the plate, you almost certainly needed two hands to hold it, or everything would fall clean off.

Looking back now, those plates are essential to my cookout memories. Because of those plates, I can conjure my favorite thing about the backyard summer gatherings of my youth: the way the barbecue sauce left its mark on everything else on the plate. My grilled chicken leg, slick with sauce, slid around like a bumper car leaving dents as it bounced off the potato salad, the pile of wet grocery store coleslaw, the Hawaiian roll, the salty corn on the cob.

Eventually, squinting through the sunshine, I'd take a bite of that corn, tie-dyed burgundy-yellow. The mingling of those flavors bugged me when I was a very little kid. But after years of backyard cookouts, I came to enjoy and eventually love it.

This soup is inspired by that beautiful mess of summer-specific flavor. You start by blistering ears of corn in a cast-iron pot. (I have a deep, unenameled Dutch oven that I like to use for this soup, but you could use a cast-iron skillet to blister the corn and then any large pot to make the soup.) Pluck that corn out, and, while it's cooling, brown some yellow onions in a little oil. I add a pinch of salt to the onions to encourage them to release their moisture and brown a bit faster. As soon as the onions are done, add water. That's the base of your soup. Next, cut the kernels off the cobs. Hold the spent cobs over the pot, and, using the back of your knife, scrape any remaining bits of corn and corn "milk" into the pot. Chuck the scraped cobs in, too, and bring your corn broth to a boil.

Pull the cobs out before thickening the broth with a little stone-ground cornmeal. (It enhances the corn flavor and turns the broth creamy.) Once the cornmeal looks plump and the broth has more body, add the blistered kernels. Simmer and blend the soup a bit - or all the way for a silky consistency - before tasting and adjusting the seasoning to your liking.

To mimic the flavor of buttered grilled corn on the cob mingling with sweet barbecue sauce on a flimsy paper plate, I top each bowl with a dollop of barbecue sauce butter. It's just barbecue sauce - any flavor, type or brand works (or consult our taste test) - mixed into softened butter. As the butter melts into the soup, take a spoonful. Notice the individual flavors and how they bounce off each other in each bite, remaining distinct even though they're all in one bowl.

It's a lot like my summer memories - the plastic kiddie pool, the green garden hose, the massive watermelon - mutable but no less cherished.

Corn Chowder With Barbecue Sauce Butter

TOTAL TIME:: 1 hour
SERVINGS: 4
STORAGE NOTES: Storage note: Refrigerate the soup and butter separately for up to 4 days.
MAKE AHEAD:: The barbecue sauce butter can be prepared and refrigerated up to 1 week in advance.

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For the chowder:
• 5 ears corn, husked
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as vegetable or canola
• 1 small yellow onion (5 ounces), diced
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt, divided, plus more as needed
• 5 cups water
• 3 tablespoons stone-ground cornmeal (not coarse), plus more as needed
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed For the barbecue sauce butter:
• 3 tablespoons barbecue sauce, such as Sweet Baby Ray's or homemade (see related recipe), at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

DIRECTIONS

Make the chowder: In a large, unenameled Dutch oven over high heat, sear the ears of corn until some of the kernels blacken and start to pop, 10 to 12 minutes. (If you don’t have one, char the corn under the broiler on HIGH or in a cast-iron skillet or grill pan.) Transfer to a large cutting board and reduce the heat to medium-high.

Add the oil to the pot, followed by the onion and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and sauté until it softens and turns golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, prepare the corn: Working with one ear at a time, hold the corn parallel to the cutting board, so the kernels are touching the board. Using a sharp knife, cut the kernels off the cob a few inches at a time, rotating the cob until all the kernels have been removed. As you finish with each cob, hold it over the pot and use the back of your knife to scrape the remaining corn bits and corn “milk” into the pot before adding the cob to the water. Stir in the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt. If the water is not yet boiling, increase the heat to high. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat so the water is at a lively simmer and cook until the corn broth is milky and fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes.

Make the barbecue sauce butter: While the corn cobs simmer, in a small bowl, stir together the barbecue sauce and softened butter until thoroughly incorporated. Refrigerate until semi-firm, if desired, about 8 minutes. You should have about 6 tablespoons.

Return to the chowder: Reduce the heat until the liquid is just steaming. Using tongs, remove the cobs from the broth, scraping each one against the interior edge of the pot to ensure all the bits of corn remain in the pot, then discard. Increase the heat and bring the broth to a boil.

Whisking constantly, gradually stir the cornmeal into the broth. Cook, whisking occasionally, until the soup thickens and the cornmeal appears plump, 5 to 6 minutes. If needed, add up to 1 additional tablespoon of cornmeal for a thicker soup. Stir in the corn kernels and pepper, and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Taste, and season with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Using an immersion blender, blend some or all of the chowder, depending on the texture you prefer. (Or you can puree the soup in batches in a blender: Be careful to not fill it more than halfway, and make sure to remove the center ring from the lid and hold a kitchen towel over the lid as you blend to prevent splatters.)

To serve, divide the chowder among bowls and top with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the barbecue sauce butter.

Substitutions: Cornmeal >> 1 large russet potato, peeled and simmered with the cobs, then blended into the soup, or one (15-ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed, and pureed into the broth. Butter >> nondairy butter.

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