Description
Sweet corn is a type of maize, which was first cultivated in North and South America. Corn had enormous significance to the native Indians of the whole continent. It was by far their most important food and was used for their shelters, fences and as jewellery.
Corn is easy to prepare and cook and tastes its best when cooked fresh. It is available fresh on the cob but is commonly purchased frozen. Frozen or tinned corn kernels are used in many kitchens. Corn is a good carbohydrate food and is a source of niacin, which is only made available if the corn is cooked in alkaline water. Therefore add a little bread soda to the water. This is the only vegetable to which bread soda should be added as many other vitamins are destroyed by alkaline conditions. Niacin in other vegetables is completely available and does not require alkaline conditions for its release
BUYING
Look for cobs with the husk intact. The husk should be green and fresh and conceal fine, silky threads. Kernels should be tightly packed, plump and smaller at the tips than in the middle (indicating young cobs). If buying from a market try to shop earlier in the day and avoid buying sweetcorn that has been sitting in warm sun – the rate at which the sugars are turned to starch increases rapidly with temperature.
STORING
After picking, the sugars in sweetcorn began turning to starch at a pace. As the point of sweetcorn is that it’s sweet, keep sweetcorn cool and eat as soon as possible after picking – on the same day as purchase where possible. If keeping for more than a day, parboil the corn for a minute (this will help slow down the conversion of sugars) before refrigerating or freezing.
