foodsandflavors~™ Carmen Long
Corn WRITER & PHOTOS Carmen Long Family and Consumer Agent N.C. Cooperative Extension Surry & Alleghany county centers.
What’s for Dinner? Delicious LOCAL Recipes
A Summer Classic
Nothing says summer like fresh sweet corn. A family favorite for many, corn is so versatile. Corn can be grilled, roasted, steamed, boiled, microwaved and eaten straight off the cob or cut off and used in countless recipes. Lengthy family discussions have occurred about the “right way” to eat corn on the cob. Side to side or around—which best describes you? No matter how you eat it, just enjoy it. Follow these tips to make sure your corn is delicious. Shopping Tips: Cool is key in keeping corn fresh after it is picked. As corn warms up, the sugar in the kernels turns to starch so it won’t be as sweet. Ideally, corn should be picked the morning it is purchased. If you are shopping at your local farmer’s market, shop early in the day and select corn displayed in the shade or on ice for best quality and flavor. At the grocery store, select corn displayed in a refrigerated bin. Take an ice chest when you shop to keep the corn cold until you get home. The husks on fresh corn will be green and tight. Pull back a piece of the husk to make sure the kernels fill the ear but are smaller at the end. Large kernels at the end may mean the corn is over ripe. Milky juice should come from a kernel when you break it with your fingernail. The silk on fresh corn is a light golden color, moist and soft. Storage: If corn is still in the husk, leave it that way to keep it moist. If it has already been husked, store the corn in a perforated plastic bag. Keep refrigerated to help prevent sugar loss. Cook corn sooner rather than later after it is picked for optimum flavor. If you have more than you can use within a couple of days, cook the corn for two minutes to stop the sugar from turning in to starch. Cool and refrigerate. Drop the ears into boiling water and finish cooking when you are ready to eat.
You’ll find all of our cookbooks available for purchase at:
Mill Creek General Store 541 West Pine Street Mount Airy
32
Preserving: Corn is one vegetable I like to freeze if there is enough space in the freezer. The processing time for canning corn is so long, that often the color is brown and not very appetizing if it is canned safely. In our area, whole kernel corn must be processed for 55 minutes for pints and 85 minutes for quarts at 11 pounds of pressure in a dial gauge canner and at 15 pounds of pressure in a weighted gauge. For more information on canning corn, please call Cooperative Extension at 336-401-8025 or go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation at http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html
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