Why it works: Sugar and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,168 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Green Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select full-grown, tender sugar corn and test by piercing a grain; milk should escape.
Strip off the outer layer of shucks, turn back the inner shucks, and remove the silk.
Bring the inner shucks back over the grains and tie the ends to preserve sweetness.
Boil and serve
Put the corn into a pot of boiling salted water, enough to cover it.
Cover and boil for 30 to 40 minutes until cooked.
Cut off the stalk close to the cob and remove the shucks.
For cold boiled corn, cut it from the cob and fry, or mix with mashed potatoes.
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.
-
Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh sugar corn
- Sweet kernels are the main component, and their milky juice indicates ripeness.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the boiling water so the kernels take on flavour as they cook.
The step that matters
Boil for 30 to 40 minutes until cooked. Boiling too briefly leaves the kernels starchy and firm, while overcooking toughens them and dulls their sweetness. Checking for tenderness near the end of the range helps.
“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.
More boiled corn recipes
You might also like
Corn Fritters203 recipes
Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes
Green Corn Soup46 recipes
Cornmeal Gruel41 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.