Retailer Recent Corn on the Cob

The summer time of 2022 was peak candy corn for me. Not solely had Corn Kid 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 food regimen 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 time. 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 find out how to retailer the corn. 

This summer time, nevertheless, I’m exploring new methods to organize recent corn, so I usually discover myself choosing it up with out having a dish in thoughts, which generally means utilizing the corn a number of days later. In fact this is not actually ideally suited—our general advice about find out 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 challenge that explores native foodways, to be taught extra. 

What Occurs As Your Corn Sits

Due to its fast metabolic rate, corn can lose its candy taste shortly when its sugars flip starchy. This has led to the age-old recommendation to take your corn straight from the sphere to the cooking pot. Nonetheless, the time that it takes for the corn’s flavors to show into starch will depend on the number of corn you’re coping with and the place you’re shopping for it. With regards to sweet corn—the sort that almost all Individuals are buying to eat on the cob and for recipes like corn ribs and Kansas City-style cheesy corn—the period of time it’s a must to eat it comes down as to whether 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 regionally grown corn, “converts half of its candy sugar into tasteless chains,” giving off a taste that’s disliked by many. Commercially grown corn, nevertheless, has been bred into sweeter varieties that may stand up to the lengthy processing occasions 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 just a little bit slower than regular candy corn was, say, even a decade in the past. You may depart it in your fridge for 5 or 6 days. It is most likely been 5 or 6 days out of the sphere [when you purchase it] and it is nonetheless candy if you’re consuming it, for probably the most half.“

Sadly, there’s not likely any technique to inform what selection you’re choosing up on the grocery retailer; most are simply labeled as “candy corn.” “There are millions of types of corn,” says Smoke-McCluskey. For those who’re purchasing for corn at a farmers market, ask the farmer what they’re promoting and they need to have the ability to provide you with extra info on the range and the way a lot time you will have earlier than the standard drops off an excessive amount of. 

What to Look For When Shopping for Corn

Though you could not have the ability to establish what kind of corn you’re shopping for, there are some things to maintain a watch out for to be sure you’re choosing one of the best of the bunch. “I search for the plumpest kernels,” says Smoke-McCluskey. Editorial director Daniel Gritzer notes that the silk ought to be “moist and comfortable, 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 wish to see any tan to it in any respect, or it drying out.”

The Greatest Solution to Retailer Corn

For those who insist on storing your corn, you may maintain it in its husk and throw it in your fridge’s crisper drawer—the chilly slows down the conversion of sugars to extra advanced (and fewer candy) starches. Whereas it is at all times greatest to eat your corn as shortly as you may, you seemingly have a while, relying on the number of corn you’ve got purchased and the place you’ve got purchased it. Longer-lasting varieties (usually what you may discover on the grocery store as of late, but in addition grown by some native growers) can final an extra 5 to 6 days from buy if saved within the fridge. For those who’ve purchased corn that does not maintain onto its sweetness as lengthy, you may must eat it quicker, wherever from one to 2 days after buy. If unsure, speak to your produce supervisor or the farmer for extra steerage.

Your greatest wager 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 reducing 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. For those who’re shopping for shorter-lasting varieties (generally nonetheless bought at a farmers market), you’ll wish to use it as shortly as doable, since one of these corn loses taste in a short time. For those who’re buying corn on the grocery retailer, you must have the ability to use it inside rather less than per week earlier than its taste actually fades. Retailer it complete 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.