Freezing Sweet Corn
Updated: Sep 2
Quantity: As much or as little as you'd like!
Freezing the entire cob:
Bring large pot of water to a boil. Husk corn and remove the peels & silk. Fill clean sink with cold water and dump a couple trays of ice into it. Blanch entire cob in boiling water for 3 minutes and immediately remove it from the boiling water and place in the ice water bath. Once cooled, place in freezer bag and use a vacuum sealer to get the air out.
*In my experience, without the vacuum sealer this style of corn doesn't turn out very well. If you don't get almost all of the air out, it exposes the corn and gives it a soggy freezer taste. If you use the vacuum sealer, it will taste super fresh for about 3 months post freezing!
Freezing the kernels cut off the cob:
This is my preference!
Husk the corn, removing the peel and silk. Blanch on the cob for 3-5 minutes, rinse under cold water, and drain. Cut off the kernels with a knife, and then pack into freezer quart bags. Don't cheap out and get the off-brand freezer bags because it makes a big difference in the long run (plus you're spending all this time storing it, you want it to turn out good!). We get zip-lock brand quart freezer bags. I roll the bags onto themselves and push down at the same time. You can't really crush sweet corn, so apply plenty of pressure so you get as much air out of it as possible.
Grandma D. always roasts her corn before she freezes it. We don't.
Roasting the sweet corn is basically adding butter/cream and salt/pepper in a pan in the oven for a half hour or so, until it's cooked together a while and melded flavors. Then she cools it down and bags it for the freezer.
We don't roast our corn before we freeze it because we use it for a lot of different recipes that call for sweet corn. And roasted sweet corn can't be used in all of those recipes. Roasted sweet corn is basically a side to dinner, not something you can really use in many other dishes.
2023: We have a web page devoted to orders. You can place an order for bulk sweet corn for freezing anytime and it'll come with your next scheduled CSA delivery.
Picture credit to: https://anoregoncottage.com/freeze-corn-three-ways-blanched-unblanched-whole/
Freezing corn methodology comes from my cook book.