Hoarded Corn

Deep Run Roots

People have been putting up corn for generations. This is almost exactly like my husband's Eastern North Carolina family has done it for a long time -- but I hear now they often "blanch" it in the microwave instead. Follow along as my family and I freeze some corn (160 ears!) to eat this winter.

I found her method online here: http://www.achefslifeseries.com/recipes/4

Captions

[00:01]: [Music]
[00:03]: today we're outside because we are going
[00:06]: to be hoarding corn so you guys are
[00:07]: gonna watch us shut corn for a long time
[00:10]: but we'll do a time-lapse and speed it
[00:12]: up a lot so when we're done here we'll
[00:17]: talk about what we're gonna do later
[00:23]: [Music]
[00:53]: you
[00:53]: [Music]
[00:58]: so my kitchen isn't gianormous mess
[01:01]: because my husband is said it would be a
[01:03]: great idea to paint the kitchen and put
[01:07]: up a hundred and forty years of corn
[01:09]: this weekend so um I'm going to have to
[01:15]: just apologize for the state of
[01:17]: everything in the background but right
[01:20]: now I'm going to be washing the corn I'm
[01:26]: gonna be scrubbing it with a vegetable
[01:27]: brush to try and get some more of the
[01:28]: soaps off this is not part of the recipe
[01:31]: she just tries cos my soaps off as she
[01:34]: can and then leaves them these were
[01:36]: particularly silky and hard to get
[01:39]: everything off plus my kids helped and
[01:41]: they're not great at it
[01:42]: so I'm going to be scrubbing 140 ish
[01:46]: ears of corn now so then we'll come back
[01:51]: for the next step
[01:53]: [Music]
[02:15]: so this is our setup for basically
[02:20]: parboiling the corn we take corn drop it
[02:23]: in salted boiling water when it comes up
[02:25]: to a boil we let it go for three minutes
[02:29]: and then we drop it into our ice bath
[02:33]: here and then we have this setup which
[02:37]: is I don't know what this tool is called
[02:40]: it's a we bought it out of like a
[02:43]: country store somewhere a long time ago
[02:45]: we've only used it like once before but
[02:48]: my husband's family had one and so he
[02:51]: knew how to use it and actually in the
[02:54]: book there's a picture and they were
[02:56]: using something similar you can use just
[02:58]: a knife cutting corn off the cob is
[03:01]: always horrible but this is basically a
[03:02]: tool specifically for that so I'm gonna
[03:06]: be boiling my husband's gonna be using
[03:08]: this because he thinks I'm gonna hurt
[03:09]: myself with it and then we've got some
[03:14]: ziplock bags quart bags ready to put
[03:18]: some in and get them ready to go into
[03:19]: the freezer so that's about it I'm gonna
[03:23]: set you guys up and do a time-lapse of
[03:25]: all of this so enjoy
[03:29]: [Music]
[03:53]: I thought I'd show you guys is what it
[03:55]: looks like when my husband uses this
[03:57]: contraption I'm gonna look up what it's
[03:60]: actually eventually so go ahead
[04:31]: all right and that gets all the tunnels
[04:33]: and the milk from the corn out and does
[04:37]: a really good job and yeah there's a
[04:40]: blade there two adjustable blades and
[04:44]: then some like teeth in between so that
[04:47]: I think helps to get more more of the
[04:50]: juice out so anyway that's it
[05:01]: I didn't really make an intro for this
[05:04]: recipe yesterday because it's not really
[05:08]: a recipes but so you're gonna get an
[05:10]: intro / outro I'm gonna tell you all
[05:13]: about it and then you're gonna be able
[05:15]: to watch watch watches make it so today
[05:21]: we are hoarding corn so routine Howard
[05:27]: and deep run routes calls this hoarded
[05:30]: corn and basically it's what my
[05:32]: husband's family would call putting up
[05:34]: corn it's to save save fresh corn to eat
[05:40]: later put it in the freezer and then you
[05:45]: can have corn throughout the the winter
[05:48]: and fall when you need there's no fresh
[05:51]: corn available I was reading another
[05:55]: book recently and this chef said that
[05:59]: all frozen corn is crap not good at all
[06:03]: doesn't taste that corn tastes like
[06:05]: freezer
[06:06]: I've been eating corn done this way
[06:10]: since I've known my husband and it
[06:13]: tastes a lot like fresh corn cut off the
[06:17]: cob when it was you know when it was in
[06:19]: the middle of summer so I I mean I agree
[06:23]: pretty much all the corn you can fresh
[06:25]: all the corn you can buy in the store in
[06:28]: the grocery store in the freezer section
[06:29]: not really worth it but this is really
[06:31]: worth it that said Vivian Howard suggest
[06:38]: you make no less than 200 ears of corn
[06:42]: all of these other women that we
[06:45]: discussed this with said that was kind
[06:47]: of crazy the farmer's wife down the road
[06:52]: said she does no more than a hundred
[06:53]: years but we found bags of corn and the
[07:01]: bag was each 70 ears of corn in a bag
[07:03]: and my husband bought two bags so
[07:06]: supposed to be about 140 ears in the end
[07:08]: it was a hundred and sixty years we had
[07:13]: white corn white corn is sweeter than
[07:16]: yellow corn but a little bit more one
[07:19]: note yellow corn tends to be corny er so
[07:22]: to speak it has has a little bit more of
[07:24]: that flavor and less sweet but more corn
[07:26]: flavor white corn is is sweeter but all
[07:31]: they had at the farmers market that day
[07:33]: was white corn so so we did white corn
[07:36]: in a variety actually called triple
[07:39]: sweet but as far as this recipe you
[07:44]: don't really this isn't really to make
[07:47]: to eat right now although you can it's
[07:50]: to make a bunch to freeze for later and
[07:53]: I have to say it was a process many
[07:60]: hands make light work in this sort of
[08:03]: job and in fact or as we thought the
[08:06]: shucking would be the really hard part
[08:09]: it didn't seem to take all that long we
[08:12]: had our kids help us the whole family
[08:15]: sat around a wheelbarrow and shucked
[08:17]: corn and put all the the bits in the
[08:20]: wheelbarrow and anyway you'll be able to
[08:23]: see we live sort of in the country so
[08:25]: that was that was pretty easy it was
[08:29]: easier than we expected
[08:32]: but the hard part is boiling the corn
[08:39]: well waiting for the water to come back
[08:41]: up to a boil
[08:42]: boiling it for a certain amount of time
[08:44]: putting it in the ice bath and then
[08:47]: cutting it off the cob we very luckily
[08:49]: have there's a tool on this page which
[08:55]: you'll see in the video that they use to
[08:57]: cut the corn off of the cob we actually
[08:59]: already told you before I have a ton of
[09:03]: gadgets we already had this so we
[09:09]: already had that and that was very
[09:10]: helpful so
[09:12]: with the two of us my husband and I I
[09:14]: didn't let the kids help us with the
[09:16]: stove and wouldn't have been probably
[09:20]: wouldn't have been a good idea there are
[09:21]: five and eight so they're not really
[09:24]: stove users yet my daughter has very
[09:28]: little my eight-year-old has very little
[09:30]: interest in actually using the stove but
[09:34]: anyway with my husband and I so I I did
[09:40]: the boiling putting it in ice bath
[09:42]: refreshing the ice refreshing the
[09:45]: boiling water all of that and my husband
[09:47]: did the cutting it off the cob with this
[09:49]: with this tool because he thought I
[09:51]: might hurt hurt myself although we were
[09:54]: thinking he might hurt himself too so
[09:55]: but I think he wanted to take one for
[09:57]: the team anyway all of that took a
[10:01]: really long time but I think all told
[10:04]: with the shucking and the scrubbing to
[10:09]: get silks off which is not in this
[10:10]: recipe but I had to do because the silks
[10:12]: were hard to get off but with the
[10:16]: shucking in the scrubbing and the
[10:18]: boiling we started just before noon and
[10:22]: we finished at about five o'clock now we
[10:23]: did take a few breaks in between steps
[10:25]: and but it was it was a time commitment
[10:31]: she says two hundred years will yield
[10:33]: about 20 quarts we had a hundred and
[10:36]: sixty years and we got 15 quarts
[10:39]: plus we froze ten ears hole on the cob
[10:43]: and each ten years was about a quart I
[10:46]: think so that's pretty much right on the
[10:49]: money they fill a quart bag about
[10:52]: halfway maybe a little bit more than
[10:54]: halfway and then flatten it so it'll
[10:56]: freeze nicely and anyway and thaw nicely
[10:59]: so it's not a full quart of porn but
[11:04]: anyway it was it was a process
[11:08]: it was certainly doable I think it was a
[11:11]: lot easier with the tool that we used
[11:14]: versus a knife although you obviously
[11:17]: can always
[11:18]: knife they do sell this tool on Amazon I
[11:24]: think it's about ten bucks maybe fifteen
[11:26]: so worth it if you're putting up a ton
[11:29]: of corn so yeah I think I think we will
[11:35]: reap the rewards of this throughout the
[11:38]: winter but yesterday when we actually
[11:42]: did this we were just tired so I hope
[11:47]: you enjoy the video and if you do don't
[11:50]: forget to click the thumbs up button and
[11:53]: subscribe thanks a lot for watching
[11:57]: [Music]