One tradition that my family has had for generations is cutting, cooking and freezing fresh sweet corn to enjoy throughout the whole year. This method and recipe come from my Great Grandma Mathel and I remember as a very young girl sitting out on the picnic table surrounded by 4 huge bushel baskets of sweet corn and helping husk, clean, and cutting sweet corn. Then my sister and I would carry the husks down to the feed the hogs we had. It was so fun and every year I do this I recollect wonderful memories with my Great Grandma and my mom.
What's so great about this recipe is that you are already adding in your butter, salt and sweetness to the corn so all you have to do is thaw out the bag, or if you are like my mom just throw the frozen bag in the microwave to eat it all up and then dump it in a bowl ready to eat. And with this method of using fresh sweetcorn when it's in season, you really can enjoy that "fresh" sweetcorn taste anytime of the year.
We are starting to sweet corn show up in our grocery stores and before long many of us will see it being sold by the bushel in the back of pickup trucks from local farmers (which is the best way to do it). I just happened to by this batch of corn in the grocery store at $3 for 10 ears and I got 6 bags of corn (2 full cups in each) from 20 ears. That is about $1 a bag. In the grocery store it can cost $0.60 for a can of corn that only has about 1 2/3 cups in it so it's a wash in price, but canned corn doesn't taste at all like this. Plus by freezing your own you can control the amount of salt, sugar and butter that goes in it.
Method:
Husk and clean fresh ears of sweet corn. Make sure you get rid of all the little silks and rinse off the ears.
Next I take and ear of corn and a medium sized knife and start cutting up the ear, cutting as deep as you can to get the kernels but not to get too far in the cob. Then I scrap my knife back down where I just cut for any other little bits and juice. This method creates more of a creamier final corn product. If you don't want that then don't scrap it afterwards, just cut the kernels.
About 2 dozen good sized ears can make about 14 1/2 cups of raw cut corn.
Ingredients for Grandma Mathel's Cooked Corn:
4 quarts of raw corn
3 cups water
4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
Mix all the ingredients together in a large pot and cook over medium high heat.
Boil for 3 minutes.
Then pour the corn in a container to go in the fridge to cool. I just used a 9x13 inch baking pan. If you can put it in a bowl that is sitting in a large bowl of ice filled water and stir it until it cools down a bit before putting in the refrigerator that would work good too. Cool the corn completely.
Next scoop the corn in to freezer bags in quantities that you would like to have for a meal. My family will go through about 2 cups of corn in a sitting so that's how much I put in a 1 quart freezer safe baggie.
You then need to make sure sure you remove the air in the bags and seal them well. If you have a food saver machine that works the best. But if you don't I seal up my bags almost all the way and then I leave a little slot to suck out the remaining air and quick seal it up. I know this is kind of silly but I saw it on Sesame Street one time when I was really young and it worked for them.
Finally I date my bags and label the quantities with a permanent marker and then put the bags in the freezer.
Again you can adjust the amount of corn, salt, and sugar to your needs, but this my most favorite way to eat corn other than straight off the cob!!!!
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