Corn has come under a lot of fire in recent years. There is the GMO controversy, the organic vs non-organic controversy, the high fructose corn syrup controversy, the government subsidies controversy, the crop rotation problems… just to name a few off the top of my head. This vegetable/fruit/grain (yes corn is all three) has sparked tempers, concern and angst among people who care about what we eat.
I wish I could say that this post would put your mind at ease and help settle all the controversy once and for all, but I confess I don’t have all the answers. What I can do is tell you how to preserve corn if you happen to come into some that you would deem fit to feed your family. I also did a taste test after I dehydrated fresh corn, frozen corn and canned corn, and finally, I’ve got a few tips for you about how to get get fresh corn off the cob.
How To Dehydrate Corn Step-By-Step
First start with corn you trust. I’ll get to frozen and canned corn in a moment.
One trick to shucking corn fast is to place the whole unpeeled ear in the microwave (yeah, I know, another controversial subject) for about 5 minutes.
Then cut the end off.
The corn slides right out.
It is a pretty cool trick. The corn slides out with no silks attached and is cooked and ready to eat.
However, if you have 55 ears of corn, well, that’s 5 minutes in the microwave times 55, maybe you can do two at a time so that’s 27.5 times say for 8 minutes. Ok, you see where I’m going with this math. It takes less time to just shuck the corn the old fashioned way. Luckily, I had two boys that were willing to help and of course, many hands make light work.
We had the corn shucked in no time.
Wash your corn.
Fill a large pot with water. This is my Victorio water bath canner. I think it’s the best water bath canner ever made but I love it even more, because I can use it for more than just canning.
Boil your corn for about 10 minutes.
I don’t really use a timer. I know the corn is done when it changes colors.
Here’s a trick you might have seen floating around on Pinterest. It’s not a bad idea. The only thing is that if you’re not careful you could put nicks in your bundt cake pan. And this is something I wasn’t comfortable with having my children help do.
So I thought I’d try this corn stripper. It’s a great concept.
Place the ear on the base.
Place the top on.
Then run the blade down the ear of corn in a twisting motion.
Here’s another picture of the twisting motion.
The cob is caught in the middle of the hollow tube.
Unscrew the bottom to retrieve your corn. It is really a great idea and I would highly recommend it for use with children. However, it’s a lot slower than a knife.
Come to find out the knife and bunt cake pan really do work the best. So you CAN believe some things you read on the internet…….:)
Break the corn up before you place it on the dehydrator trays.
Load up your trays.
Here is a close-up of the corn before being dehydrated.
I started out with 55 ears of corn and filled eight trays in my nine tray Excalibur Dehydrator
Set the temperature between 125ᵒF and 135ᵒF and dehydrate for 8 to 12 hours.
Here is the what the dehydrated corn looks like.
As I mentioned above I wanted to do a taste test between the fresh, frozen and canned corn after they have been dehydrated.
The frozen corn before being dehydrated. It’s certainly cut prettier…..:)
The two bags of corn I had filled up about 3 trays in my Excalibur.
The dehydrated frozen corn.
Then I tried canned corn.
Two cans of corn filled up two trays.
The canned corn is darker because it’s been processed (cooked) more than the other types of corn.
The dehydrated canned corn.
All 3 types of corn. Notice the color difference.
Here you can see the color difference a little better. The fresh corn is on the left. It is the lightest, then the frozen corn in the middle and finally the canned corn on the right. It’s hard to see in the pictures but there is a color difference. The fresh corn is light, the frozen corn a little darker and then the canned corn is very dark.
But here’s the big discovery, the taste was completely different between the fresh corn and the other two types of dehydrated corn. The dehydrated fresh corn tastes like corn. My kids eat it like a snack. The frozen and canned corn were tasteless. I don’t mean less flavorful. I mean devoid of all flavor!
I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know. After all, most of the time fresh is always better. But the surprise was how bad the other types of corn tasted. It seems to me if you’re going to go through the trouble of dehydrating corn you want the end product to resemble, well, corn. I suppose you could just the other types of corn as some filler for a recipe or something in a pinch, but I won’t be stocking up on frozen corn or canned corn to dehydrate.
Before I add the corn to my food storage I vacuum pack it with my FoodSaver in Mason jars with a jar sealer attachment. This is a half gallon sized jar.
The attachment also comes in a smaller size for regular mouth jars.
Label and put away.
