Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 323 kcal | 91 kcal |
| Protein | 12.4 g | 3.5 g |
| Fat | 5.2 g | 1.5 g |
| saturated | 0.8 g | 0.2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 62.6 g | 17.8 g |
| sugars | 23.6 g | 6.7 g |
| Fibre | 7.5 g | 2.1 g |
| Sodium | 56 mg | 16 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg ears of corn (also canned or frozen corn) (about 10 medium)
Instructions
- Use corn on the day it is picked if you possibly can. Sweetcorn converts its sugar to starch within hours of leaving the plant, and drying locks in whatever state it has reached.
- Stand each cob upright in a wide bowl and cut down close to the core. The bowl catches the kernels along with the milky liquid, and that liquid carries much of the sweetness.
- Blanch the kernels in boiling water for four minutes. Every kernel has a tough skin, and blanching opens it enough to let water out now and back in later.
- Tip them into iced water and then drain them hard. Corn left to cool slowly carries on cooking itself and goes from sweet to starchy.
- Spread the kernels one deep over mesh. They are small and round and roll into piles, so level them with your hand rather than shaking the tray.
- Dry at 57 °C for 10 hours, stirring them about twice so they cannot settle into clumps as they shrink.
- They are ready when they are hard and wrinkled and bounce off the tray like grit. Bite one: it should be too hard to chew rather than merely chewy.
- Cool them fully and keep them in sealed jars in the dark, where they hold a year. Twenty minutes in simmering water brings them back, and they go into chowder or succotash with no soaking at all.
