Lets freeze some sweet corn

[FinsnFur]

Never done this before but decided to give er a whirl this afternoon.
Im so glad I have a side burner on my grill an didnt do this in the house. What a mess [emoji30]

With a few tips from some co-workers and about 3 hours of my life, I managed to turn 5 dozen ears of sweet corn into 20 ziploc bags of winter time num nums. I think I coulda cut an hour off the time if I had help but that happen lol.






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[nastygunz]

So you boiled it then cut it off the cob bagged and froze it? My question would be why not just freeze the whole raw ears?

[Okanagan]

Lookin' good!  I LOVE sweet corn year round and freeze quite a bit each summer.

I'm lazy and do a few ears at a time.  We microwave the corn unshucked for four minutes, one ear at a time. Trim off leaves and extra stalk from the base of the ear.  I turn the ear over halfway through unless I wander off and forget.  We also put a small rubber band a few wraps around the silk end and that reduces the amount of water vapor and condensation released inside the microwave.   After four minutes cooking we either let it cool a bit, peel it and eat it, or we let it cool, Saran wrap it and freeze it, still unshucked.   Sometime next winter I pull one frozen ear, unwrap the plastic, microwave it for four minutes, then peel the shuck and eat.  Primo.  I pick up a half dozen or a dozen ears every few days and freeze what we don't eat fresh, a few at a time.

In the microwave, steam from its own moisture cooks the corn on the cob and it is very good, can only be beaten to my taste by wrapping in foil and cooking in the coals of a campfire, and that is a less precise method!

This is the gatherer time for hunter gatherers!  Picked strawberries & cherry tomatoes yesterday & bought peaches, apricots and cherries.  Made a peach pie and a small apricot cobbler today.   

[Okanagan]

So you boiled it then cut it off the cob bagged and froze it? My question would be why not just freeze the whole raw ears?

Re freezing raw:  My understanding is that the sugar in corn begins turning to starch as soon as it is picked.  That's why farm folks familiar with fresh corn can taste the difference between corn cooked within minutes of picking or hours later.  Heat stops the process of sugar turning to starch and stops the degrading of flavor.   I think what they call blanching is a short immersion in boiling water to stop the starch process and retain flavor.

[FinsnFur]

I can't answer that question, but I think Clyde pinned it down.
I was told to only cook the corn halfway before cutting it off the cob and freezing it. Because heating it up to serve later would finish cooking it and the corn would retain its crispness and sweetness. So yeah that kind of makes sense.

Clyde, I have never heard of cooking the corn as you described and then freezing it but wow I love the idea.
We cook all of our sweet corn that we eat immediately, via the microwave. So handy, quick and clean. And there's virtually no taste difference versus boiling it.
But do you really shuck yours after it comes out of the microwave, Clyde? We learned a trick by cutting the bottom of the cob off and shaking it out of the husk with no silk and no shucking. What a breeze. Is that what you do to?

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[riverboss]

I'm glad this came up I'm getting ready to do the same thing! I love me some sweet corn and miss it during the winter months.
Mom always canned it I'm to lazy to do that.

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[Okanagan]

IBut do you really shuck yours after it comes out of the microwave, Clyde? We learned a trick by cutting the bottom of the cob off and shaking it out of the husk with no silk and no shucking. What a breeze. Is that what you do to?

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Jim, just a few days ago I saw on Youtube that method of cutting off the big end and then slipping it out after microwaving.  Haven't done it that way but will try it.  I am concerned that cutting off the end will let out more steam than I want.  The shuck and silk come off pretty easily if you leave them whole, and it seals everything in a little better.    Good stuff!

[nastygunz]

This thread is sure making me hungry!

[FinsnFur]

Yah we only do that if we're eating them right away. And ya dont cut it off until they come out of the microwave. But its crazy how clean and easy they slip out of the husk.

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[Okanagan]

Good idea to cut off the stalk end after they come out of the microwave.  In the video I saw they cut them before but your way keeps the best of both worlds! 

[Hawks Feather]

Looks good and is making me hungry.  Have you seen the video where they use a drill to rotate the corn and cut it off that way?  Never tried it, but if it didn't mess up  the kernels of corn it would sure be slick.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

A drill?? LOL I would think there would be corn on the ceiling

[Hawks Feather]

Just one of them.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

I wish theyd show his face lol. I'm pretty sure he's blinking as the kernels hit him in the face

[HaMeR]

  Safety glasses Jim!! You should wear them when working/cooking with power tools. 

[trailtwister]

You don't have to cut it off the cob. You also don't have to cook it before you take it off the cob.


Here's the deal with corn: enzymes* rule.

In this case, certain enzymes kick in right after you cut the ear from the stalk (of if you just leave the ear on the stalk too long), and begin converting the sugars that make corn taste good to starch, which we either perceive as having no flavor or the flavor of animal fodder. Over the years, farmers and food technologists have developed strains of corn with higher levels of sugar â€" sometimes six or seven times as much as traditional varieties â€" so that they taste much sweeter initially, and still satisfyingly sweet after days in transit or days in the refrigerator (as long as it's kept within reason).

Enzymes generally become inactive or unstable above 122°F (50°C). They slow down in the bitter cold of your freezer, but â€" and this is the place to pay attention â€" they do not cease their labors. So if you do not blanch corn before freezing, it will continue to lose it sweetness and flavor. If you know that your corn is a "sugar-enhanced" or a "supersweet" variety, and if it has not been days since it was harvested, you may well be satisfied with unblanched frozen corn. Some of the sugar may have converted to starch in your freezer, but it may still be delicious.

We know people who freeze their corn without blanching, and are perfectly happy with it. They probably eat it within about two or three months of freezing. If you blanch your corn â€" and it was a flavorful sweet corn to start with â€" you can probably freeze it for as long as ten months, allowing you to have corn on the cob available pretty much throughout the year.

The bottom line is, you are more likely to enjoy your frozen corn if you blanch it first.

You can freeze corn without blanching it, in or out of the husk, on or off of the cob. If you want to keep the husk, remove the tough outer leaves, peel back the inner leaves to remove the silks, and rewrap the inner leaves. We are not aware of any advantage to keeping the husks.

*(Enzymes are the little proteins that cause or speed up chemical reactions.) 

Our recipe for raw corn freezing.

Simplest way to freeze sweet corn. No blanching, No Cooking, No Cooling, just mix package and freeze.
Minutes to Prepare: 60

Number of Servings: 50



Ingredients

25 c. fresh sweet corn (about 3 dozen ears)
1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp salt
1 c. sugar
4 c. water

Directions

Husk corn and cut from cob. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Put in freezer bags (I like to use the snack size for smaller portions) and freeze.

It's that simple!



     Al





 



 

[FinsnFur]

Who ARE Youuuu?

[Okanagan]

Trailtwister is a man of all skills-- who must have 36 hours in each of his days!   

Did some corn last evening.  I love corn on the cob.  Very lazy.  Minimal trim from the field, then never do anything more with shucks, cob or corn until ready to eat.   First pic is trimmed and ready to microwave.  I leave enough on the stalk end to hold all of the shucks, 3/4 inch or more, though remove any loose partial outer ones and snip off leaves.   I prefer not to peel it back and then replace shucks because I can never get it as air tight again, so that it does not hold steam as well when cooking, and it is more open to the drying of freezer burn.  Personal style, no more. 

Re the rubber band:   I ruined a microwave last year when the steam built up inside while cooking corn, and fried the electronics.  It caught on fire inside the wiring, interesting in our kitchen.     This new microwave exhausts the moist air better, but the rubber band keeps a lot more steam moisture inside the shuck, which cooks it a little better probably.  This may be a totally useless step.




Then an ear wrapped and frozen.  I bone out venison but leave the corn on the cob.     This spring I grabbed ten of these frozen ears, put them in my ice chest along with a bag of ice  cubes and used them to keep meat etc. cold for a couple of days.  When we had the big feed I posted about earlier at the white marble stone picnic table, we wrapped them in foil, buried in campfire coals and cooked.   Big time hit since everybody liked corn on the cob and it was super tasty. 

[trailtwister]

Never did need much sleep, I think sleeping waste a lot of peoples time really. I really am awake for 18 to 19 hours a day now that I am getting older.

   Al

[bigben]

nice.  we ended up doing 44 doz ears of corn the other week.  we would blanch them stick em in a tub of cold water then shuck em down and we had a table of shuckers and a table of cutters.  we were putting a hurting on the bottles of liquor as well but it was a good day.