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Preparing
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Corn
Zea mays (sweetcorn) · Vegetable
1 variety40 pairings
Sweetcorn is the immature, sugar-rich ear of Zea mays, picked at the "milk stage" when the kernels are plump, pale-gold and burst with sweet, milky juice. Eaten on the cob, off the cob, boiled, grilled or raw, it is one of the few grains the world treats as a vegetable — sweet, juicy and grassy fresh, nutty and caramelized once fire touches it.
Picking a good onedrag
Milky-sweet, just pickedStarchy, dry, dented
Shop freshBoil, grill or griddle - the sweetness still leads.Everyday best
Husk and silkHusk green, silk brown but supple
The cut stalkCut stalk cream, surface dry
Weight in the handHeavy, tip kernels smaller but full
Smell at the cut endGreen and grassy, faintly sweet
What to look for, from milky-sweet, just picked to starchy, dry, dented.
What one gives you
36%
Usable yield
102 g · husk, silk and cob off
283 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
A domestic fridge holds it about 4× longer than the counter.
Humidity
95–98%
Leave the husks on and bag them. The husk keeps drawing water out of the cob, and losing about 2% is enough to dent the kernel tips.
Airflow
Bagged, not sealed
Sweetcorn respires harder than almost any vegetable and warms itself. Keep it a single layer deep in a perforated bag, never a sealed pile.
Untroubled by the fruit bowl
Gives off next to none, and outside ethylene is not what costs it anything - warmth is. Left long beside ripening fruit, only the husk leaves yellow.