How you can Retailer Contemporary Corn on the Cob

The summer season of 2022 was peak candy corn for me. Not solely had Corn Child develop into a mini sensation, however I used to be additionally neck deep in recent farmers market corn for weeks on finish. This heavy corn weight loss plan began after I made a decision to make esquites with my haul. My household liked the dish a lot that I ended up making it each weekend for the remainder of the summer season. I’d head to the farmers market each Saturday, seize the freshest corn I may discover, and make the recipe for lunch or dinner that very same day—which meant I didn’t have to fret about tips on how to retailer the corn.

This summer season, nonetheless, I’m exploring new methods to arrange recent corn, so I typically discover myself choosing it up with out having a dish in thoughts, which generally means utilizing the corn a couple of days later. In fact this is not actually splendid—our common recommendation about tips on how to retailer corn has at all times been…don’t. The ingredient’s taste and sweetness solely declines the longer you wait. However relying on the place you’re getting your corn, that recommendation can range. I spoke with Smoke-McCluskey, a Mohawk chef and proprietor of Corn Mafia, a micro-milling undertaking that explores native foodways, to study extra.

What Occurs As Your Corn Sits

Due to its quick metabolic fee, corn can lose its candy taste rapidly when its sugars flip starchy. This has led to the age-old recommendation to take your corn straight from the sector to the cooking pot. Nevertheless, the time that it takes for the corn’s flavors to show into starch is determined by the number of corn you’re coping with and the place you’re shopping for it. Relating to candy corn—the sort that the majority People are buying to eat on the cob and for recipes like corn ribs and Kansas Metropolis-style tacky corn—the period of time you must eat it comes down as to if you’re getting it from a neighborhood farmer or the grocery retailer.

Grocery Retailer Corn vs. Farmers Market Corn

Harold McGee’s On Meals and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen notes that “in three days, conventional candy corn,” which is most domestically grown corn, “converts half of its candy sugar into tasteless chains,” giving off a taste that’s disliked by many. Commercially grown corn, nonetheless, has been bred into sweeter varieties that may stand up to the lengthy processing instances it takes to get from the farm to a warehouse after which on grocery retailer cabinets.

“These days, with the brand new industrial candy corns, a few of these are designed to mature slowly,” says Smoke-McCluskey. “So the sugars begin to convert a little bit bit slower than regular candy corn was, say, even a decade in the past. You’ll be able to depart it in your fridge for 5 or 6 days. It is in all probability been 5 or 6 days out of the sector (whenever you buy it) and it is nonetheless candy whenever you’re consuming it, for probably the most half.“

Sadly, there’s probably not any option to inform what selection you’re choosing up on the grocery retailer; most are simply labeled as “candy corn.” “There are literally thousands of forms of corn,” says Smoke-McCluskey. Should you’re searching for corn at a farmers market, ask the farmer what they’re promoting and they need to be capable of provide you with extra data on the variability and the way a lot time you may have earlier than the standard drops off an excessive amount of.

What to Look For When Shopping for Corn

Though chances are you’ll not be capable of determine what kind of corn you’re shopping for, there are some things to maintain a watch out for to ensure you’re choosing the perfect of the bunch. “I search for the plumpest kernels,” says Smoke-McCluskey. Editorial director Daniel Gritzer notes that the silk must be “moist and mushy, not brittle and dehydrated,” and Smoke-McCluskey provides that they need to be “sort of healthful wanting, not limp and mushy. I search for the husk to be a pleasant inexperienced and sort of vibrant wanting. I do not need to see any tan to it in any respect, or it drying out.”

The Greatest Technique to Retailer Corn

Should you insist on storing your corn, you’ll be able to maintain it in its husk and throw it in your fridge’s crisper drawer—the chilly slows down the conversion of sugars to extra complicated (and fewer candy) starches. Whereas it is at all times finest to eat your corn as rapidly as you’ll be able to, you doubtless have a while, relying on the number of corn you have purchased and the place you have purchased it. Longer-lasting varieties (typically what you will discover on the grocery store nowadays, but additionally grown by some native growers) can final a further 5 to 6 days from buy if saved within the fridge. Should you’ve purchased corn that does not maintain onto its sweetness as lengthy, you will have to eat it sooner, anyplace from one to 2 days after buy. If unsure, discuss to your produce supervisor or the farmer for extra steering.

Your finest guess for storing corn long run is to freeze it. You are able to do this by blanching the corn in boiling water for one minute, chilling it quickly in ice water, after which chopping off its kernels. Unfold them throughout a baking sheet and place them in a freezer till frozen, earlier than transferring them to a zipper-lock bag which you’ll maintain within the freezer for as much as three months.

The Takeaway

Relying on the place you’re buying your candy corn, your choices for storage range. Should you’re shopping for shorter-lasting varieties (generally nonetheless bought at a farmers market), you’ll need to use it as rapidly as doable, since the sort of corn loses taste in a short time. Should you’re buying corn on the grocery retailer, it is best to be capable of use it inside rather less than every week earlier than its taste really fades. Retailer it entire within the crisper drawer of your fridge, or minimize the kernels from the corn, blanch and freeze them, then retailer them in a zipper-lock bag for a most of three months.