Cooking recipes

Pickled Baby Corn

The baby corn to make baby corn pickles can be very hard to find. Ive mostly found it at markets where there are a lot of Mennonite vendors; St. Jacobs in particular. It will also be expensive. It should be. Do you want to husk all those itty, bitty little cobs of corn? No. No, you dont. Give the nice lady the really very reasonable sum of money she is asking for, and a big smile. Also, go early or it will have sold out.

Of course if you are a masochist you could try growing a variety of corn specially bred for baby corn - there are several out there - and then husking them yourself. I havent quite gotten there yet, but maybe next year or the year after.

Needless to say, these are a rare treat to be brought out on special occasions. The texture is intriguing and the delicate corn flavour and sweet-sour tang makes a good contrast to other pickles and relishes. They go well with almost any kind of meat, but especially more mildly flavoured ones like fish or chicken, as well as cheeses and cold cuts.

7 250-ml jars
1 hour prep time


1 cup water
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 quarts (8 cups) fresh baby corn cobs
salt

Put the jars to be used in a canner and cover with water by at least an inch. Bring to a boil and boil them for 10 minutes.

Be sure the corn cobs are quite small and that they have been well cleaned. Boil them for ten minutes in salted water and drain well. Pack them in the sterilized 250-ml jars.

Make a hot brine of the liquid ingredients, and pour them over the corn, to 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe the rims and seal the jars with prepared lids and rings (boiled 5 minutes) and process in a boiling water bath (back in the canner, in other words) for 10 minutes.





Last year at this time I was messing around with Sauerkraut.