14 Fresh Corn Recipes That Taste Like Summer on a Plate (2024)

FAQs

How do you make corn more flavorful? ›

Butter. We often brush corn on the cob with butter as it cooks to add rich, buttery flavor, so there's no reason to skip the butter when heating up a can of corn. Adding a pat of butter to canned corn accentuates the sweet burst of flavor in each kernel.

If one harvests the right kind of sweet corn at its peak, leaves the husks on, and refrigerates the ears of corn immediately, and there are no infestations of disease or insects, then it is reasonable to expect it to stay almost perfect for three or four days. One might get more than a week of good eating from it.

It's best to use your corn the day you buy or harvest it. However, you can keep it fresh longer by storing it, unwashed and unpeeled, in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your fridge. This'll keep it usable for about five to seven days.

When Is Corn In Season? In most of the United States, peak corn season is from May to September. Because sweet corn is grown in all 50 states, you can find it at farmers' markets, farm stands and grocery stores.

Boiling corn on the cob brings out its natural sweetness. But if you want an even juicier and sweeter crisp-tender bite, swap out some of the water for milk. The milk enhances the flavor and texture. It also infuses the corn on the cob with milk and butter, resulting in salty, buttery kernels.

Corn is one of the easiest vegetables to freeze, and during the growing season, it's one of the cheapest to stock up on. You can remove the kernels for easy meals in the future or freeze it on the cob if you prefer. Additionally, if you love to boil seafood, you can't have enough frozen corn to add to the pot.

Keeping the husk on the cobs helps to slow the drying-out that occurs once corn kernels are exposed. If you're planning to eat the corn in the next day or two, immediately put the unhusked, loose ears into your refrigerator to keep them fresh. Coldness slows down the sugar-to-starch conversion process.

The appearance and aroma of your corn are the two main ways to tell whether or not it has gone bad. If it's giving off a rancid or moldy smell, or has a slimy and mushy texture, it should be tossed in your compost. Similarly, if there's any visible mold on your corn, it has gone bad.

Keep It Cold

After you pick the best corn from the store or farmers market, the first thing to do is pop that corn in the refrigerator. If you're going to eat it within the next few hours, storing it at room temperature probably won't harm it. But for the best flavor, keep it cold.

How do you store corn for a year? ›

Shuck, Silk, and Freeze: The easiest and fastest way to preserve your summer corn is to shuck, silk, and package whole ears of corn for the freezer. Use appropriately-sized freezer bags, remove air, label with the date, and freeze. Even frozen fresh ears taste better than store-bought frozen ears.

May through September you can find an abundance of sweet corn at grocery stores and farmers markets, ready to grill, boil, or even fresh from the cob.

Corn is an annual crop that needs to be planted every year and can only be harvested once a year. Given its adequate growing conditions, corn can be produced between two and four ears depending on its variety. How much corn you are able to harvest successfully depends on the quality of care you give to your crops.

Ears will be 15 to 30°F cooler in the morning than at midday, so pick ears early, if possible. Chill corn as soon as possible after picking. Standard sugary (su) types lose sweetness in just a few days. In fact, half of the sugar in su kernels is lost within 24 hours when stored above 86°F.

Any tactic for offsetting flavor deterioration seems worth a try, so we boiled out-of-season corn four ways: in 1 gallon of plain water, in the same amount of water mixed with 1 cup of milk, in water mixed with 1 cup of milk and 4 teaspoons of sugar, and in water sweetened with 4 teaspoons of sugar (our go-to test ...

The longer the corn sits after picking, the more the sugars convert to starch and sweetness is lost. This is frequently the simple reason for corn that is not sweet. Harvest time is also critical for sweetness. Harvest when corn is at its peak because sweetness fades quickly.

Cooking ears of fresh corn in a pot of boiling water seasoned with milk, butter, and salt infuses every single kernel with sweet, buttery flavor.

As corn kernels dry the sugar in them converts to starch; harvesting the sweet corn at an early stage in maturation allows higher contents of sugars to remain in the grain making the corn sweet. Sweetness in corn is a naturally occurring recessive gene that humans have been enjoying since the Native Americans.