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This buttery and sweet freezer corn recipe is a perfect way to preserve sweet corn in the summer. Tender kernels of corn are baked with butter, salt, and a touch of sugar then frozen to preserve flavor and peak freshness – no need to use a canner for this recipe! It’s easy as can be to make and the entire family can join in on the fun.
This is our family’s guide to making perfect freezer corn. It’s how my sister’s mother-in-law has made it for decades and how she and I have been making it for years.
Mix up big batches during prime sweet corn season in late summer and enjoy the taste of fresh corn for months to come!
Unlike when I freeze fresh mulberries, cherries, or cranberries, we're cooking this fresh Wisconsin produce before freezing! What a treat.
Ingredients you’ll need
- Sweet Corn – Whatever variety you like best. Last year we used bi-color candy corn, this year we used an heirloom variety.
- Butter – Salted. Lots of it.
- Sugar – To bring out the sweetness of the corn.
- Salt – My sister likes to use pink Himalayan salt for the flavor and minerals, but table or kosher will work as well.
- Water – To prevent burning.
Fresh corn from the freezer, all year long
Every year we spend an entire day making enough corn to get us through the entire year. This recipe is evidence of that with the quantity of everything! We pick, shuck, and cook dozens and dozens of years to freeze in bags for the following year.
That’s why this recipe is so great! It doesn’t require any fancy equipment or canning prowess. You can make it in a roaster, crock pot, or even bake it in the oven before transferring it to freezer-safe bags.
Read on to see how we freeze fresh Wisconsin sweet corn!
How to make freezer corn
This is just a brief overview, find detailed instructions in the recipe card below!
- Shuck the corn. This is a great part to have the kids join in on. Make sure you remove all the silk, though.
- Cut off the kernels. An electric knife makes quick work of this.
- Cook the sweet corn. With butter, sugar, salt, and a touch of water to prevent burning.
- Bag the corn. After it’s cooled. You never want to freeze hot food.
- Freeze the bags of corn. And then enjoy at your leisure!
Reheating frozen sweet corn
You can reheat this corn two ways for a delicious side dish that tastes like a bite of summer even in the depths of winter. And they’re both ready in a matter of minutes!
In water: place a bag of frozen corn in gently simmering water and reheat until warmed through, about 10 minutes.
In a pot: break the frozen corn up into pieces and place in a pot set over low heat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until warmed through, about 10 minutes.
A note on salt
If you’re going to use something besides coarse Himalayan pink salt crystals, be sure to start with less salt at the beginning and taste as you go. You don’t want to over-salt the corn and ruin the whole batch.
To fill a 16-quart electric roaster (or for about 40 large ears of corn) we use about ¼ cup of coarse Himalayan salt crystals in addition to the salted butter.
If using kosher salt in this recipe, start with 2 tablespoons and taste as you go. If using regular, iodized table salt, start with 1 tablespoon and adjust according to taste. You can always add more salt but it’s hard to fix something that’s too salty!
Be careful of overcooking
The corn gets reheated and cooked again before serving. If your corn is overcooked when you freeze it, it’ll be total mush when you reheat it.
As you cook the batch of freezer corn the first time, be sure to taste it occasionally for doneness.
Taste as you go!
Every year the flavor of the corn will vary and the sweetness level with be different, especially if you use different corn varieties like we do (we just pick whatever is in the family field across from our house!).
One year we didn’t even use sugar because the corn was so sweet and other years we’ve had to up the sugar content for bland corn.
I recommend tasting the raw corn before you start cooking it. Try a few bites and adjust your additions of salt and sugar as necessary.
And as always, start with less and then add more if need be. You can always add another pinch of salt or dash of sugar, but it’s hard to go backwards once something is over seasoned. This is a cardinal rule of cooking!
Watch the recipe video!
Buttery and Sweet Freezer Corn
Equipment
- Electric Roaster (such as a Nesco)
- Electric Knife
- Bowls
- Measuring Cups
- Spoons
- Freezer-safe Plastic Bags
- Marker
Ingredients
- 40 ears fresh sweet corn (whatever variety you prefer)
- 4 cups water
- 1 pound salted butter
- ¼ cup Himalayan pink coarse-ground salt granules, more or less to taste (see post for notes on salt)
- 1 cup sugar, more or less to taste
Instructions
To make the corn in an electric roaster:
- Pick and shuck all the ears of corn (this is great to do with kiddos), making sure the silk is removed from the cobs.
- Using an electric knife or very sharp chef’s knife, carefully cut the kernels off every cob into a large bowl (or bowls, depending on how big they are) or directly into your electric roaster. Take a bite or two of corn to test the flavor and sweetness level so you have an idea for seasoning.
- Once all the corn has been cut off the cobs and added to the roaster, add 4 cups of water to the roaster, followed by the pound of salted butter.
- Depending on the sweetness and flavor of your corn, add ¼ cup Himalayan salt and 1 cup sugar. (If you’re nervous about over-salting or adding too much sugar, start with half the amount and adjust seasoning as you cook the corn.)
- Set the cooker to 350 degrees, cover the corn, and cook until the corn is 80% cooked through (it shouldn’t be totally soft and should have some firmness left in the center of the kernel), about 2 – 3 hours. Stir the corn about every 20 – 30 minutes and taste each time to test doneness.
- Once corn is cooked, remove from roaster and allow to cool, uncovered, to room temperature.
- When corn is cool, spoon 2 – 3 cups into quart-sized freezer-safe bags, being sure to include the delicious cooking liquid.
- Squeeze out all the air from the bag, seal, and press into a flat pack. Label with the contents and date before freezing flat.
To reheat freezer corn:
- Gently simmer a bag of corn in water for 10 minutes, or until warmed through or break corn apart and dump out of bag into a pot and cook, covered, over low heat for 10 minutes, or until warmed through.
Making the corn in a slow cooker:
- Assemble all ingredients as directed above in a slow cooker (or multiple, depending on the size of your cooker) and set the cooker to high. Cook, stirring occasionally for 2 – 3 hours, or until corn is 80% of the way cooked through.
- Continue with recipe as instructed above for bagging and freezing corn.
Baking the corn in the oven:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients in a large roaster with a lid. Bake, stirring occasionally, for 2 – 3 hours, or until corn is 80% of the way cooked through.
- Continue with the recipe as instructed above for bagging and freezing corn.
Video
Notes
- This recipe makes a LARGE quantity of freezer corn - enough to get us through an entire year. Feel free to halve the recipe or quarter it, if desired.
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