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Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Sweet Corn

It's sweet corn time here in Illinois.  Every year, I tell myself I'll buy extra corn and freeze it, but I never do.  Only this year, I did!  Last week, I stopped by a local truck/farm stand and picked up four baker's dozen ears of bicolor sweet corn.

The counter became a shucking station.

When I was growing up, my family grew corn in their gardens, and I have lots of memories of my mother and aunt "putting up corn," which meant shucking, washing, cutting off the cob, partially cooking it, cooling it, and putting it in quart freezer boxes.  As I got old enough, I helped out.  First with shucking, but later with the whole job.

Washed and ready to cut off

My grandmother, then my mother and aunt, made what we always called "fried corn."  It is cut off the cob and placed in a non-stick skillet (although I'm sure my grandmother used cast iron as there was no non-stick in her time) with water, butter, salt and pepper.  It is simmered for thirty or more minutes, until it is cooked down and creamy.  No milk or cream is added, however, only the milk from the corn itself.  That dish really is my youth.  I love fried corn.  I even, or actually especially, like it when the corn is not tender and sweet.  Sometimes my parents bought a field corn, trucker's delight, which is not sweet and can be kind of tough.  It became something of a joke in the family because that was actually my favorite for fried corn.

Ready to cook and freeze
It's a fair bit of work, even with only four dozen ears, but it will be so worth it come winter when I can pull a taste of summer out of the freezer.

Ready for the compost pile



11 comments:

  1. Sweet corn is my favorite too. I was so happy when the farmers market had corn on sale. We have a dozen ears in the refrigerator ready to be cooked for dinner tonight. Thank you for sharing your memories. I bet it was neat to have your own corn growing in your garden.

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  2. I love fresh corn: either on-the-cob, or fried like yours, or creamed corn.. I do NOT like Creamed Corn from a can at the grocery store... SO --I'm picky...

    Right now, we are eating corn-on-the-cob a LOT..... Love the bi-color ones...

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. That's a wise decision :-)) I haven't had any FRESH corn this year yet..used to eat lots of them, simply poached in salted water...already divine enough.

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  4. I, too, have many memories of putting up corn. It involved our entire family. The bed of a pick-up truck would be heaped with sweetcorn. And we would spend all day husking and processing the corn for winter. However, we boiled ours and cut the kernels from the steaming cobs. I've not heard of frying corn.

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  5. There are a lot of fields of corn around here, but I have never heard of anyone eating field corn LOL!!!! I can't imagine cutting if off the ears hot, either! That must be very tricky!! I stand my ears up in an angel food cake pan so I can slide the knife right down the cob. With a little luck, the corn falls in the cake pan. I put mine in freezer bags with a hunk of butter. Love the taste during the winter months.

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  6. Your corn looks awesome! We do corn every year. We used to always use the same method as you--cutting, boiling, then cooling. But we make cream corn after that: bake it with cream, butter, and sugar, then put it in the quart bags. A neighbor told us he skipped the boiling step for his cream corn, so we've started to make some batches like that as well--makes it easier. We've made fried corn a few times as well. Everything looks delicious in your photos!

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  7. I love the bi-color corn. Last year a farmer from church gave us a lot of sweet corn. I still have some on the freezer. It is so nice to have it there for the Winter.

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  8. I loved reading about your childhood memories of the corn preparing process. It will be so worth the work when you can get it out the freezer in the winter. X

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  9. Fried corn is good. I've only had it cooked in a cast iron skillet too. This summer my mom and I went to a local restaurant where they serve this corn salad. It is so so good! They roast the corn and it's added with red onions, cilantro, little bits of tomato and I know they have this vinaigrette dressing mixed in. Delicious!

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