How to store fresh corn on cob

Summer 2022 was a sugar corn for me. Not only had Corn Kid became a mini sensation, but I was also around the neck in the market for fresh producers for weeks. This heavy corn diet started after having decided to make esquits with my transport. My family loved the dish so much that I ended up doing it every weekend for the rest of the summer. I was heading for the producer market every Saturday, would take the frewing corn I could find, and make the recipe for lunch or dinner the same day – which meant that I did not have to worry about how to store corn.

This summer, however, I explore new ways of preparing fresh corn, so I often find myself picking it up without having a dish in mind, which sometimes means using corn a few days later. Of course, this is not really ideal – our general advice on how to store corn have always been … no. The flavor and sweetness of the ingredient only decrease more you wait. But depending on where you get your corn, these tips may vary. I spoke with Smoke-McCluskey, a Mohawk chef and owner of Corn Mafia, a micro-limine project that explores native foods, to find out more.

What happens when your corn is

Due to its rapid metabolic rate, corn can quickly lose its sweet flavor when its sugars become starchy foods. This led to secular advice to take your corn directly from the ground to the cooking pot. However, the time it takes for corn flavors to turn into starch depends on the variety of corn you are dealing with and where you buy it. Regarding sweet corn – the type that most Americans buy to eat on cob and for recipes like corn ribs and Kansas City style cheese – The time you have to eat is to obtain it from a local farmer or grocery store.

Corn vs Farmers Market Corn

Harold McGee On food and cooking: science and cooking traditions Note that “in three days, traditional sweet corn”, which is the most locally cultivated corn, “converts half of its sweet sugar into insipid chains”, clearing a flavor that is hated by many. Commercially cultivated corn, however, has been raised in softer varieties that can withstand the long treatment times necessary to get from the farm to a warehouse, then to the shelves of the grocery store.

“Nowadays, with new sweet commercial cors, some of them are designed to mature slowly,” says Smoke-McCluskey. “So sugars are starting to convert a little slower than normal sweet corn was, for example, even a decade ago. You can leave it in your refrigerator for five or six days. This is probably five or six days on the ground [when you purchase it] And it’s always soft when you eat it, most of them. “”

Unfortunately, there is not really a way to say what variety you take to the grocery store; Most are simply labeled as “sweet corn”. “There are thousands of corn varieties,” says Smoke-McCluskey. If you buy corn in a producer market, ask the farmer what they sell and they should be able to give you more information on variety and how long you have before quality falls too much.

What to look for when buying corn

Although you cannot identify the type of corn you buy, there are a few things to keep an eye to make sure you choose the best in the group. “I’m looking for the most dodus nuclei,” says Smoke-McCluskey. The editorial director Daniel Gritzer notes that the silk should be “humid and soft, not fragile and dehydrated”, and Smoke-McCluskey adds that they should be “a little healthy, not boigns and dough.

The best way to store corn

If you insist on storing your corn, you can keep it in its ball and throw it into the crime drawer of your refrigerator – the cold slows down the conversion of sugars into more complex (and less sweet) starch. Although it is always better to eat your corn as quickly as you can, you probably have a little time, depending on the variety of corn you bought and where you bought it. Sustainable varieties (often what you will find in the supermarket these days, but also cultivated by certain local producers) can last five to six additional days from the purchase if they are kept in the refrigerator. If you have bought corn that does not keep its sweetness so long, you will have to eat it faster, between one and two days after purchase. If in doubt, talk to your product manager or the farmer for more advice.

Your best bet to store long -term corn is to freeze it. You can do it by whitening the corn in boiling water for a minute, quickly cooling it in ice water, then cutting off its grains. Spread them on a baking sheet and place them in a freezer until frozen, before transferring them to a zipper that you can keep in the freezer up to three months.

The point to take away

Depending on where you buy your sweet corn, your storage options vary. If you buy shorter varieties (sometimes still sold on a producer market), you will want to use it as quickly as possible, because this type of corn quickly loses flavor. If you buy corn from the grocery store, you should be able to use it in a little less than a week before its flavor really disappears. Keep it entirely in the clearer drawer of your refrigerator, or cut the grains of the corn, whiten them and freeze them, then store them in a zipper bag for a maximum of three months.