Sweetcorn (or sweet corn, also known as sugar corn), is a hybridized variety of maize (Zea mays), specifically bred to increase the sugar content.
Corn originated in Mesoamerica and spread to the rest of the world after European contact with the Americas in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Sweetcorn is commonly known as simply corn in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Brazil it is known as "Milho Verde" (Green Corn). The fruit of the sweetcorn plant is the corn kernel, a type of fruit called a caryopsis. The ear is a collection of kernels on the cob. The ear is covered by tightly wrapped leaves called the husk. Silk is the name for the styles of the pistillate flowers, which emerge from the husk. The husk and silk are removed by hand, before boiling but not before roasting, in a process called husking or shucking.
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Sweetcorn is commonly eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain. The cobs are picked for relatively rapid distribution (or frozen in this 'soft' state) before the fruits mature into hard grains. The kernels are boiled or steamed and eaten as a side dish, sometimes with butter, and are sometimes used as a pizza topping (in the UK at least). Corn on the cob is a sweetcorn cob that has been boiled, steamed, or grilled whole; the kernels are then bitten off the cob with the teeth, also commonly served with butter. Creamed corn sometimes refers to sweetcorn kernels that are cut when removing from the cob to free the juices, and other times to a side dish made with corn and milk. |
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Husked sweetcorn |
In Chinese style cooking and increasingly in other styles, the ear is picked very young, while the cob is still soft, and the ear less than about 2 inches long, and eaten entire. Corn used for this purpose is often called "baby corn".
Sweetcorn may also be eaten in its dry grain form. If left to dry on the plant, kernels may be taken off the cob and cooked in oil where unlike popcorn they expand to about double the original kernel size. See Corn nuts. A soup may also be made from the plant, called sweet corn soup.
Shoepeg corn is a particularly small, white variety of sweetcorn. Kernels that are allowed to mature to hard grains are used as seed corn or ground into corn flour.
"Original" - that is, open-pollinated corn, which will breed true from seed - is now rare. Its chief drawback is that the sugars in it begin rapidly turning to starches as soon as it is picked, leading to such folk sayings as that one walks out to the corn field but runs back from it (to get the corn to the stove in as few seconds as possible); Mark Twain once suggested building corn roasters in the midst of corn fields.
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From open-pollinated corn have been hybridized corn cultivars that are not only sweeter, but which notably hold their sweetness longer, supposedly for a few days. There are "generations" of such sugary hybrids, from extra-sweet through, nowadays, "triple-sweets". Corn fanciers like the holding power of the hybrids, but many feel that the true corn flavor is, in the more recent and sweeter hybrids, overpowered by the sweetness. The sweeter hybrids need to be isolated from other types, else they will cross-pollinate with them and lose their special character. Open-pollinated corn is referred to as "su" (sugary) corn; the first generation of hybrid sweets is "se" (sugar-enhanced); the newer supersweets--which today comprise multiple classes--are "sh" (shrunken-gene). |
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Young sweetcorn |
Botanical historySweetcorn appears spontaneously in fields of dent corn due to a recessive mutation in the su (sugary) gene that regulates conversion of sugar to starch. Sweetcorn was first introduced to European-American settlers by the Native American population in the 1770s. In the time since its introduction hundreds of cultivars have developed; however, rapid starch conversion has always been a problem when storing sweet corn. Commercial production in the 20th century saw the rise of the se (sugary enhanced) mutants, which are more suitable for local fresh sales, and in the 1950s the sh2 (shrunken-2) gene was isolated that minimized production of the enzyme that converts sugar to starch, delaying it for sometimes more than a week; however, since sh2 is recessive, supersweet varieties must be grown in isolation from other varieties to avoid cross-pollination and resulting starchiness, either in space (various sources quote minimum quarantine distances from 100 to 400 feet) or in time (i.e. the supersweet corn does not pollinate at the same time as other corn in nearby fields). |
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The same rows of corn 41 days later at maturity. The shorter corn in the young image (foreground) grew taller |
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For colder conditions, some seed providers such as Vesey's Seeds of Canada provide a fourth type of sweet corn, known as sy (for synergistic); this variety of corn mixes se and sh2 kernels on the same cob and does not require isolation. Today there are very few heirloom varieties of sweetcorn grown, with almost all varieties grown commercially being hybrids.
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Sweetcorn that has not been husked yet, headed to Market. |
Varieties
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Yellow Sweet Corn
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The largest portion of the different varieties of sweet corn are yellow sweet corn. All the kernels on the cob are yellow in color. The size of the cob and the corn's taste will vary between different varieties. Most commercially grown sweet corn is yellow |
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White Corn
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White sweet corn varies from the others in that it has all white kernels. Its flavor is not as sweet as the yellow corn and the peaches and cream corn. It is used in the same manner as yellow corn. White sweet corn is not generally grown for commercial use. It is more often found at local markets. |
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Peaches and Cream Corn
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Peaches and Cream corn, also referred to as butter and sugar, differ from the other varieties in that it contains both white and yellow kernels. White and yellow kernel sweet corn is not generally grown for commercial use. It is more often found at local markets. |
