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Preserve

To Preserve Corn

A method of preserving corn by brining and seasoning with butter, cream, sugar, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Preserve Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the corn

  1. Cut the corn from the cob.

  2. Layer the corn in an earthen jar, adding ½ cup of coarse sea salt for every 6 cups of corn.

  3. Cover the corn with the inside leaves of the husk.

Make the brine

  1. Boil a large kettle of water.

  2. Squeeze the brine from the corn and add it to the boiling water without washing.

  3. Boil until the water is quite salty.

  4. Have a kettle of boiling water ready to pour over the corn after draining the salt water.

Freshen and season

  1. Change the water until the corn is sufficiently freshened.

  2. Season with butter, cream, a little sugar, and pepper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn
Forms the bulk of the dish and carries the flavour and texture of the finished preserve.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the corn and suppresses spoilage microbes, which preserves it.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the corn's texture.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the saltiness of the corn.

The step that matters

Change the water until the corn is sufficiently freshened. Salt is drawn out of the corn by soaking in fresh hot water. Too little changing leaves the corn too salty, while the cook must judge by taste when it is ready.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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