HOW TO CAN CORN

 We have so little popcorn this year as something got so much of it before we gathered it in. Nearly half of it must have been gone hen Mama and I went down to gather it. – Shirley Dobson, December 1932

Several posts ago, I wondered why Ina made no mention of corn in her little canning notebook. My dad enjoyed growing a large patch of corn at the farm, so I naturally assumed that he was carrying on the family tradition. I still think that Ina and Jack must have grown corn. At any rate, I found a number of corn recipes in Ina’s recipe box. Perhaps the corn was Jack’s responsibility.

“Ettie” sent this recipe to Ina with the following note: “Maybe you already know this method. If you do, no harm done. Lots of people don’t.” To can corn on the cob, remove husks as to cook. Place in pan. Blanch by pouring boiling water over it and let stand in water til cool. Pack in jars. Take vessel bigger than jars and fill with cold water. Immerse jar sideways in water. When bubbles stop, seal and cook about 15 minutes or ½ hour. And to cook, remove, wash and cook as usual, only add a little sugar. You can shave corn from cobs after blanching and can same way.

Here’s Mrs. Cordell’s recipe for canning corn. (Mrs. Cordell was a neighbor.)

10 cups corn cut from cob and milk scraped out,

1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp salt. Put on in open kettle. Add no water. Cook 10 minutes stirring constantly. Put in sterilized jars; seal and boil one hour.

And there are other corn recipes:

Corn Chowder

Corn Casserole

Corn Salad

Corn Relish

Here’s the recipe for corn relish:

Chop one head cabbage, sprinkle with salt, let stand one hour. Boil 12 ears corn, cut off cob. Grind 4 large onions, one large or 2 small peppers. Add chopped cabbage and cover with 1 ½ quarts vinegar [That’s what it says. No wonder I remember a house that smelled like vinegar!], 1 tsp mustard, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp celery seed, 1 cup sugar. Let all come to a boil and cook about 20 minutes and seal.

On the back of this recipe in Ina’s penciled scrawl is this recipe for corn and tomatoes:

Corn, tomatoes, onions browned in butter

Bacon diced and browned – added.

If I were to try this simple dish, I’d brown the bacon and remove from pan. Then I’d saute the corn, tomatoes, and onions in the same pan with a small amount of bacon fat. I’d crumble the bacon and stir it into the vegetables and add a sprinkle of pepper. I bet it would be pretty good.

[The photo here is of my other grandfather, Charlie Portfors. He planted a garden on a vacant lot he owned on Brown Avenue near “A” Street in Orofino. He was proud of that garden, and rightly so. It looks like he has squash in front of the corn. No date on the photo, but it was the mid-1950s.]