Freezer Sweet Corn

Making freezer sweet corn is seriously one of my favorite activities. Out of all the things that we preserve throughout the summer and fall this is easily one of my top five favorites. Not only does it taste delicious but it’s one of our quickest preservation items. We can get a lot done in a little time which can be rare in the preservation world.

Tools

We have a few different tools that we use to make the corn processing easier. The first one that we like to utilize is an angel food pan. It makes it easier to set the corn cob on the center of the angel food pan to be able to balance it and get all the corn kernels off. From this point you can absolutely use just a knife to get the kernels off. However, there are several gadgets that you can use too and I personally think they do a better job than a knife. 

Oxo

My favorite is this oxo corn cutter. You just run it down the cob and the corn falls right off. It does a good job of preventing waste and getting the full extent of the corn. They actually make two versions of corn cutters but this is the only one that I have tried. 

Corn Stripper

My mom has a corn stripper that she likes. In my opinion, this one leaves a little bit more on the cob which ends up being waste. I am super frugal and don’t like to waste anything so I have a hard time with that. It works well on the bigger cobs but the skinny ones it doesn’t work as well on. She tends to clean up the ends with a knife which works but is more effort that isn’t really needed.

Wood Corn Cutter

I’ve seen people use these long wood cutters that seem to work really well too. I don’t personally have experience with them though so I cannot speak to how good they really are. The other really cool trick that I have seen is someone specifically using just an angel food pan to get all the kernels off. This was a cool video that went around facebook this year. They pushed the corn cob through the small middle of the pan. They had drilled a hole in the board so when it went through the cob fell directly into a bucket underneath. We have good intentions of trying it one of these days but we just haven’t gotten to that level of professional corn processing yet. 

Directions

Shuck corn.

Blanch corn for 4 minutes. 

Move corn to ice bath for 4 minutes.

Cut corn off the cob.

Place corn kernels into freezer bags.

Freeze.

Extra Options

There are a couple different options that you could do with this corn if you want to. This is all that we do and we like it. It’s just plain corn off the cob.

Add Sugar

Your first option is to add sugar. I’ve seen a ton of recipes that call for processing like above and then adding some sugar and sometimes salt. I take the stance that as a country we already have too much sugar in our diets. Corn isn’t that nutrient dense to begin with either. I don’t need to add sugar to it to make it to turn it into a dessert. I guess you could say I prefer our food to be as close to the natural plant as possible. 

No Blanching

There are also different versions out there that don’t blanch the corn. They shuck it. Rinse it in cold water to get all the strings off. Then they just cut it right off the cob. I also have not tried this version. It seems like some way you would have to cook your corn. For us, we cook it up front so that it is ready to use when it comes out of the freezer. In this non-blanching method you would need to cook it after it was frozen. I know how busy life gets. I know how frustrating it can be to make dinner every single night. One less step can be a game changer for us sometimes. That is why I prefer to blanch ours before freezing. 

Canning

You can also choose to can your corn. This process also looks a little bit different. It’s something that I haven’t done but that’s not to say I won’t do it in the future. There are a couple reasons we choose to freeze. The first is that we don’t process a ton of corn because we don’t use a ton of corn. We did 10 two cup bags of corn this year (we doubled that because my parents got the same amount but that is what we did for each couple). To can that would have only been one batch of canning but it would have used our valuable jars. In case you are reading this later thinking what does she mean by that. It’s 2021 now and there has been a lid shortage for canning jars for just over a year now. They are in short supply and a severely hot commodity. If you see them in stores it’s recommended that you buy them all. Seriously. I’ve even gone as far as purchasing them from Canada that’s how desperate I am. I also got reusable mason jar lids to try, too. Until we know how those work and if we want to keep using them we have to use our canning jars sparingly. Corn is something that we know we like from the freezer so, for now, that is what we are sticking with. 

I hope you get a chance to enjoy your own freezer corn this year! What tools do you use? Do you add anything to it? Let me know how you like to process yours!