Why is this the answer?

The answer is corn because this is a super sneaky riddle that plays a trick with your mind! Let's think about a fresh ear of corn on the cob and how you get it ready for your dinner plate. This process has two different stages, and the riddle describes both of them perfectly. First, the riddle says, "You throw away the outside and cook the inside." When a farmer first harvests corn, it is tightly wrapped in a big, thick, green covering called the husk. The long, leafy husks and the hair-like silk are the first "outside" parts you peel off and toss in the trash. That leaves you with the cob, which is covered in rows of tiny, uncooked yellow or white kernels. When the riddle says "cook the inside," it means the whole cob with all its kernels is what you cook, perhaps by boiling it in a pot of water or grilling it over a fire until it is nice and hot. The whole cob is the "inside" that gets cooked. Once the corn is hot, buttery, and ready for dinner, you move to the second part of the riddle: "Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside." Now that the cob is cooked, the delicious, juicy kernels are the new "outside" layer. You bite or cut those yummy kernels off, and they are the part you eat. What is left when you are finished eating all the kernels? A bare, wooden-like stick. This hard core is the cob, and since you cannot eat that part, the cob becomes the second "inside" that you throw away. The riddle is clever because the ideas of 'outside' and 'inside' change from the beginning to the end. It starts with the inedible husk and silk as the outside and the whole cob as the inside. Then, after cooking, the edible kernels become the new outside you eat, and the inedible cob becomes the inside you discard. Corn is a wonderful food that makes you peel it, cook it, and then eat it right off its own core, which is why it is the perfect answer to this challenging word puzzle.