I have a very important and pressing question I...
I’ve lived all over the US and what in the actual, genuine fuck is that? Do you…dip a corn cob into something? There’s 0 way you eat a corn cob. Please, WHAT are you talking about?
(in response to my questioning if cob dips existed outside Australia)
Good news - it’s nothing to do with corn, and in fact I had completely forgotten that corn cobs were even a thing when I asked!
The ‘cob’ in the name instead refers to those really round loaves of bread (that are technically called ‘coburg bread’).
Here in Australia a pretty common party/social snack is to basically hollow one out and fill it with a dip of some kind, and tear up and toast the inside so that you can use it to ferry the dip from the cob to your mouth.
The dip inside is usually made from some combination of sour cream, cheese, onion and either bacon and chives or spinach, and can be served still warm or cold. As you get further into it and the dip level lowers, you can start to eat the loaf that comprises the bowl.
They can also be made in a single serve size, using a regular bread roll (cob loaf credit to my sister, who is a caterer and sells lunches through a local coffee shop whose instagram this was posted on)
And they’re not just some niche thing either - credit again to my sister, but this was a party she catered with a big grazing table where the cob dip got it’s own special spot.
There is a festival celebrating them and there are meme pages on facebook in their honour - the linked one has 48,000 followers.
Cob dip/the cob loaf is an institution here and it never occurred to me until tonight that it might only be a here thing.