Freezing Corn (2011)

When you live in the midwest, you come to know certain things. Like, you know that most likely, when the weather starts getting nice, the wind begins to blow. And you also know that when the weather is nice and the wind stops blowing that the bugs will be out. You also know that there are a few genius ways to pass those hot summer days: strawberry or raspberry shakes at the county fair, a nice tall glass of lemonade, long days spent out at the lake keeping cool, and eating so much glorious sweet corn that you aren't sure you can take anymore (and of course, then you do).

Two years ago at Thanksgiving, I had my first experience with tasting freezer corn. It was at that point that I decided we MUST have our own. So last year, I froze my first batch. My big mistake? Not freezing enough of it! We ran out in mid-May, and have been waiting patiently for August to roll around to get more.

Now it's not that you can't find fresh corn on the cob at any grocery store beginning in mid-June: You can! But after living in Minnesota for almost 5 years now, you come to know that the cream of the crop ends up not being ready until mid-August.

The biggest secret to freezer corn is the corn! I've heard of plenty of recipes where you slather the corn in cream cheese, heavy cream and lots of other artery-clogging stuff, but this is the cleanest, freshest recipe, and it's fantastic! The secret? The corn has to be mouth-watering by itself!

The first step (beyond making sure you have sugar, water and salt on hand) is the husking, which Mark and I tackled on a beautiful morning on our kitchen deck.


Of course, you'll want to have some sort of place to put the freshly-husked cobs. This is just a small sneak peak at what we had - doesn't it make your mouth water?


The next step is to cut the kernels off the cob.

And then, once you've got 16 cups of corn (I had to measure two of these)...

...you put it in a large stockpot.

You then add 4 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and 4 tsp of salt.

And then? You cook it, and it gets to smelling SO delicious!

It bubbles, and it foams, and it teases your tastebuds!


And then? When it has boiled for 10 minutes, you set it aside and let it cool for a few hours.

We like to bag ours, but I suppose you could put it in containers as well. Either way, make sure it's a good, tight seal to ward off any freezer burn!

I'm very much looking forward to having some freezer corn when it's cold and snowy outside, and thinking back on this beautiful summer day when we froze it all :)