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Preserve

Canned Corn

A method for preserving fresh corn in Mason jars using tartaric acid, water, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Canned Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Pack the jars

  1. Cut the corn from the cob and pack it tightly into Mason jars until the juice rises to the top.

  2. Fill the jars completely.

  3. Place the rubber and cap on loosely.

  4. Wrap each jar in a cloth.

Boil and seal

  1. Place the jars in a boiler of water, ensuring the water covers them, and boil for three hours.

  2. Remove the jars.

  3. Tighten the caps immediately.

Season and finish

  1. Dissolve the tartaric acid in the water.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of tartaric acid to every 2 quarts of sweet corn before cooking.

  3. Pour off the liquid.

  4. Add water.

  5. Add a little baking soda.

  6. Add sugar while cooking.

  7. Season with butter, pepper, and salt.

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

Fresh corn
Forms the main body of the dish and supplies its sweet flavour.
Tartaric acid
Adds acidity to the corn and its liquid, which helps preserve it.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the corn when seasoning it.

The step that matters

Measure the tartaric acid carefully. Tartaric acid adds acidity that helps preserve the corn. Too little leaves the corn less protected, and the sealed jars cannot be corrected afterward.

“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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