How To Properly Freeze Corn After It's Off The Cob

Storing vegetables in the freezer is one of the best ways to ensure they stay fresh, packed with flavor, and don't go bad before your next meal. While you could always opt to buy a prepackaged bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer aisle, often, buying fresh and local produce is the best way to go. Luckily, corn is also one of the easiest vegetables of all to pack and store. You just need to know how to properly freeze corn after it's off the cob.

To get it off of the cob, shuck your corn however you prefer. Next, heat the shucked corn in a saucepan on medium heat until it turns a dark yellow color. Then, remove the corn from the heat and let it cool. 

Finally, you'll want to grab a plastic freezer bag to store your shucked corn in. Three ears of corn will yield roughly two cups of shucked corn, so the size of the bag you'll need will depend on how much corn you have. Do the math before committing to the process. Once you've got your bag, open it up and pour the cooled corn inside. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal it closed when you're done. That's all there is to keeping your corn preserved until it's time to make your next corn-based recipe.

If you're on board with freezing your corn — but still in the market for ways to shuck it – try giving this simple method a try. To start shucking your corn, grab a sharp knife and a cutting board. Start the shucking process by simply pulling the ear of corn out of the husk, while removing any leftover silks that hold onto the cob in the process. 

Next, hold the cob by the stem and gently shave the kernels off using a knife. Repeat this process all around the corn until there are no more kernels left. In the end, only the empty cob should be left.To get more flavor out of the cob, you can also run your knife along the sides of the empty cob to release some of the corn's juices along with the kernels. Next, you can get ready to freeze your corn.

While the process of preserving corn is easy, there are a few things you should always keep in mind. One of those is how to pour your corn into the bag. To avoid any spills, it's a good idea to fold the top of the freezer bag down before pouring in the vegetables. This gives extra stability to the bag while you pour in the corn. It also prevents any juice from spilling out onto your kitchen counter. We also recommend squeezing all the air out of your freezer bag before storage. This step is important because having too much air in the bag can lead to freezer burn.

You should be able to keep frozen corn like this for up to a year, but actual times will always vary, so the sooner you use it the better. When you're ready to eat your vegetables, there are many good ways to thaw frozen corn. To start you could simply take the bag out of the freezer and leave it to thaw in the fridge overnight. Pouring the frozen corn into a saucepan with a tablespoon of water is also a smart method to get it thawed.