I’m talking corn on the cob, folks. Sweet corn season has arrived, and it won’t last long, but I want to extend the season for a big family do a couple of weeks later, and good corn on the cob would be awesome.
Have you ever frozen corn on the cob with any success? Are there tips and tricks to doing so? Can it taste anything like fresh-picked?*
I know that Alton Brown had his tip on using bleach and lemon juice to kill the starch-making enzymes, but would this combine well with freezing? Should there be a blanching stage before freezing?
I also know that there are lots of home canners/freezers out there: fight my ignorance!
*Garrison Keillor says that fresh-picked sweet corn is better than sex, and I agree. The way to tell if you are a true sweet corn afficianado is whether you pick it before the water is boiling.
Hell, a true sweet corn maniac would haul the stove down to the field and just bend the stalks over and dip the ears into the boiling water…
I’m interested in this too. I’ve tried freezing it on the cob two ways – blanching and not blanching. Neither worked, so I gave up. I’ve been cutting it off the cob and freezing it. It’s good – better than any frozen corn that you buy at the store – but it’s not fresh-picked good.
Sadly, I think the answer is no. I have a farmers market 1/2 mile from my home. His back fields [corn fields] abut our property. We have sweet corn every day for the short season. I’ve tried vacuum sealing and freezing and no matter what I do I can never get that “pop” that fresh corn has when you first bite into it.
I think the sweet corn season is something to have some reverence for while it is here, and enjoy it while you can then at the end of summer, switch gears to autumn eating…Butternut squash - mmmmmmm
If you freeze it, it’s not ever quite the same as fresh picked, but it’s still a right smart better than the frozen you get in the grocery store. Canned corn is right out. I freeze it both on and off the cob.
You can indeed freeze it but as the food aficionados have said before, it does take something out of the taste. If you can vacuum seal it i think that helps too, but of course you’d have to have one of those machines.