Why it works: Corn and sugar 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 ↓
Canned Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Grate corn from the cobs.
Boil the cobs in cold water to cover for 20 minutes, then strain.
Cook the corn
Mix the corn and corn water in a pot with 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Cook on the stove until it swells.
Jar and process
Fill glass jars with the mixture, place rubbers and covers on top.
Cook again in a kettle of hot water for 1 hour.
Tighten the covers and wrap the jars in paper.
Store in a cool, dark place.
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.
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Corn + sugartop 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
- Corn
- Forms the bulk of the product and gives the final canned texture and flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the corn's natural flavor.
The step that matters
Cook again in a kettle of hot water for 1 hour. This heat treatment in the sealed jars is what preserves the corn. Under-processing can leave microorganisms alive, so the jars must be heated for the full time.
“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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