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Preserve

Green Corn for Winter Use

A method of preserving young corn by layering with salt and drying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Green Corn for Winter Use

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Boil the corn on the cob until about half done.

  2. Cut the corn off the cob finely.

  3. Mix the corn with salt when it is cold.

  4. Spread the corn on a cloth to dry slightly.

Preserve

  1. Pack the corn into a jar, layering with salt until almost full.

  2. Add a final layer of salt and place a board on top with a weight.

Serve

  1. To serve, boil the corn in plenty of water.

  2. If too salty, pour off some water and add fresh boiling water.

  3. Season with butter, pepper, and a little Bugavat.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Young, tender corn
Forms the bulk of the dish and is preserved in salt.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the corn against spoilage.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Layering with salt in the jar. Salt must cover the corn fully so it draws out moisture and inhibits spoilage bacteria. Gaps or too little salt can let the corn spoil instead of preserving.

“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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