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Canned Corn

Canned corn is preserved corn cooked with tartaric acid, then sealed and later seasoned with cream, salt, sugar, flour, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Canned Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the corn

  1. Cover corn with hot water and cook until tender.

  2. Dissolve tartaric acid in ½ teacup of hot water and add to the corn.

  3. Cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Seal while hot.

Finish and serve

  1. When opened, pour off the water.

  2. Add cream, salt, sugar, ½ teaspoon flour, and a scant teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in hot water.

  3. Stir well into the corn.

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

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

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 dish and provides its main texture and sweetness.
Tartaric acid
Adds acidity that helps set the corn kernels and keeps the canned product stable.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother mouthfeel to the corn.
Baking soda
Neutralises acidity and softens the corn, mellowing its flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with acid and can foam or leave a soapy, bitter taste if added in excess. A scant measure, fully dissolved and stirred in well, keeps the corn tender and the flavour balanced.

“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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