Start the water to boil before you go pick the corn.........

[jal_ut]

OK, here is the scoop. I borrowed my son's sugar meter to test the above theory.

Procedure, I picked two ears of corn, one was a little more mature than the other. In doing some testing, I learned that the more mature ear was sweeter than the younger ear. Also it was apparent that the kernels closer to the stem were sweeter than the kernels near the tip. Also it seemed that each test of the same ear would vary by about 2 points.

With that out of the way I tested a kernel from each ear. The more mature one read 28, the other 22.

I tested them each half hour for the next 2.5 hours. At the end of that length of time, there was no significant difference from the first reading. Only a couple of points. As said earlier the readings varied that much.

I conclude the old axiom has no basis in fact!

[nathan125]

Interesting!! however what type of corn did you test? SU or SE or something else?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Thanks for sharing James.

If you are willing, how about on the next ear, test every 24hrs. I'm curious how much flavor / sugar is lost shipping across the states.

Eric

[jal_ut]

Posted: 08 26 12 Post subject:
Interesting!! however what type of corn did you test? SU or SE or something else?

OOPS! I was going to put that in ........ It was Ambrosia, an SE type. One may get different mileage from a standard corn? I don't have any to test.

Also the corn was let to stand at ambient temperature of 78 degrees F. during the test.

[joed2323]

Great post james!

That is very good to hear. I never fully beleived you had to have water boiling because id rather use the grill for cooking corn. Nothing is better imop then corn cooked on the grill in the husk!!!

I do believe bi-color corn has better taste as I grew ambrosia and bodacious, (first year for ambrosia) this year..

Ambrosia is going to be a favorite in my garden every year to follow.

People that I see buying supermarket corn, I feel bad for them because they really have no clue as to what they are missing out on, no offense to anyone, but nothing compares to growing your own sweet corn.

My suggestion to anyone that wants to grow corn, DO IT! The little bit of work involved growing corn is totally worth biting into your first freshly picked ear of sweet corn, nothing compares

[joed2323]

I forgot to add that there is a few factors on how well corn taste, alot of it has to do with the sweet corn being mature/past mature/ or before prime!

With that being said another big factor is how the sweet corn is cooked, overcooked corn or undercooked corn taste different.

There is a slight "fine line" on eating the perfect ear. Luckly I have a patch that is big enough for me to experiment with the corn being picked at different times of maturity.

Again, make room in your garden or build a new spot for your corn patch big or small, it doesnt have to be huge patch for a person to enjoy their own freshly picked sweet corn, yum yum

[gixxerific]

That is interesting. As DDF said I wonder how it goes in 24 hr incriments.
I was alwasy told as well that the sugars started to brake down immediately into starch, which is why you did this test.

[Brandywinegirl]

I agree - nothing compares to growing and tasting your freshly picked corn. Unfortunately some critters attacked the lower growing cobs - ground hogs or squirrels I think. I shook cayenne pepper, but to no avail.

Next year I will grow even more corn so there will be enough (hopefully) for BOTH of us!

[Dillbert]

seems everyone "agrees" (a) SE /SSE have lots more sugar and (b) sugar converts to starch after harvest and (c) SE/SSE sugars convert less rapidly than SU types. but hard data is hard to find....

(I don't consider "seed sources" to be reliable unbiased - stuff I've looked at is all .edu type agricultural "studies")

here's a blurb from:
https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/postharv/ag-413-4/index.html

The taste and quality of sweet corn depends heavily upon its sugar content, which rapidly decreases after harvest if ears are allowed to remain at field temperatures. By lowering the temperature, the conversion of sugar to starch may be substantially slowed but not completely stopped. Loss of sugar is about four times as rapid at 50 F as at 32 F.

Newer supersweet cultivars contain over twice as much sugar as standard varieties and are more forgiving of delayed cooling and mishandling. For maximum quality and value, however, sweet corn must be continuously and properly refrigerated from harvest until it reaches the consumer.
===========

it addresses (primarily) the need to cool the corn after harvest - cites a USDA handbook
showing loss of sucrose approaches 60% after 24 hours of "not cooled" - 86'F -storage.
the type (ie su SE SSE) is not specified.....
for some oddball reason I can't get usda.gov to respond this morning - I wanted to see what else that handbook may say.

the decline is rather dramatic, and pretty much a straight line - which means one could think about "interpolating" the results "by hour"

that math would look something like:
24 hours = 60% loss or 2.5% per hour - which certainly puts a question on "detectable" loss waiting for the pot to boil.... our local farm stand harvests at dawn, the stuff is on the table by 9AM - regardless, it sits "somewhere" until dinner time.

all nice theories, but practical issues apply - lacking my own "patch" there's a 9+ hour window of picked to eaten. 9 hrs * 2.5%/hr loss = 22.5% - looks like something one could detect - and perhaps that's why folks find the SE/SSE "better" - those types are slower to lose the sugar - by how much, hard to say....

other studies show large scale measures of sugar content varying by geographic area, cultural practices, first through fourth picking, time of day picked, etc. - by not "sugar loss by the hour..."

there's a lot of "taste tests" published - some with very exquisite sampling and statistical work - but taste is a relative thing and getting to the question of how much sugar is lost is something that can be measured.

one study, in mentioning sugar decreases/coverts to starch - says it's "rapid" but also states hard data is difficult to find . . . you may be on the leading edge of "hard data" (g)

[RogueRose]

My great grandfather, Henry A Wallace - always said that! He always had water boiling and wouldn't put corn in the water unless it was picked as close to field as possible. Also he was adamantly against doing anything other than flash boiling - never boil corn more than 2minutes. Never let it sit in water. He was against grilling corn too. Just boil. Get it boiling, run out, pick, shuck, drop, 2min, EAT! Sometimes eat it raw too.

[TheWaterbug]

Procedure, I picked two ears of corn, one was a little more mature than the other. In doing some testing, I learned that the more mature ear was sweeter than the younger ear. Also it was apparent that the kernels closer to the stem were sweeter than the kernels near the tip. Also it seemed that each test of the same ear would vary by about 2 points.

Thanks! This is exactly the kind of science I've been looking for.

Unfortunately, your sample size of two is a bit small.

In the name of science, I am willing to conduct an extended test. If you would be so kind as to ship me your sugar meter and about a dozen ears of your freshest corn by refrigerated, overnight freight, each day for 2 weeks, I would be very pleased to repeat your measurements over a larger sample. Since the container will be refrigerated anyway, would it be too much trouble to include some butter?

I would publish all results, of course.

[Smallgardener]

It stands to reason that the bottum kernels would be sweeter upto a point. The pollen travels to the bottum kernels first. Those kernels would be more mauture by a couple of days. As the ear matures the bottum kernels would loose thier sweetness earlier.

[joed2323]

Again there is alot of factors with having sweet corn. When I pick corn, I get it in the fridge quickly, no fartin around with it outside, I am a firm believer as to keeping corn cold.

Supermarket corn is no where near or not even close to as the same level as home grown freshly picked sweet corn

[Gary350]

I love Scientific tests.

My Grandfather taught me to pick corn early when the silks start to turn a little brown and dry out. If you want good flavor pick early but if you want large corn with less flavor pick later.

I would be interested in seeing another TEST. How about testing the sugar in lots of 5 ears, first lot of 5 silks are just starting to turn brown, second lot of 5 silks are about 50% brown, third lot of 5 silks are all brown and dry.

The Victory garden on TV once said, boil water before you pick your corn because the sugar starts to turn to starch shortly after the corn is picked. They did not say how quick the sugar turns to starch but 24 hours later it is very noticeable to the taste. I have been planting Silver Queen corn for 30 years, I tried several others but I like SQ the best.

I know corn is like grapes. The sugar in grapes goes up and up until it reaches a peak then it starts going down. You test the grapes and when sugar is at its peak you pick and make wine. I have no test equipment only my taster. Here are 54 bottles of wire. It is best to pick early the tart grapes that are not quite ripe yet and the ripe sweet grapes produce the best flavor wine.

[img]https://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e358/gary350/Wine-52.jpg[/img]

[DoubleDogFarm]

Take one down, pass it around. 53 bottles of wine on the counter.

Eric