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Originally Posted by Worth1
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One place said to boil corn for 9 minutes heck that is longer than I cook it fresh. . . .
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I do have some experience with that corn timing. Several years ago I tried all sorts of different suggestions for freezing corn on the cob. Even just putting corn in the freezer with no processing worked OK, but if kept longer it got "cobby" tasting. Other methods were OK, but I finally tried the suggestion to "blanch" the corn in boiling water for ten minutes (for four large ears or similar mass in smaller ears in a two gallon kettle.) Then, of course, to promptly move it to ice cold water -- keeping the water ice cold -- for at least another ten minutes to immediately chill it through. Then to collander to drain, from there to freezer on wax paper lined trays until frozen hard. Then each ear wrapped snugly in plastic wrap and stored in larger freezer bags -- as much as will fit in one while keeping it flat for secure stacking.
Like you, I had thought it was an absurd suggestion because blanching time is usually much less than cooking time.
But it worked. It worked unbelievably well. We've eaten corn on the cob that's been frozen for three years and it was great -- tasted as if it had been frozen yesterday.
When ready to eat -- take it from the freezer when the water is boiling, and boil it ten minutes, as you would fresh corn.
Couple of caveats that might affect results -- we grow 'sugar enhanced' corn -- not super sweet, we grow Bodacious, Ambrosia, Frosty -- and the corn is originally processed in the "from the garden right into the boiling water" fashion -- so it is about as fresh as corn can be and for those varieties, it's easier to pick in prime condition -- the optimum picking time is a little longer interval than some varieties, which have more of an optimum day for picking.
And sometimes when I've mentioned this people get the idea that it means cook the corn as usual and freeze the leftovers -- they miss the importance of the immediate cold water chilling.
I'd never have believed it until I tried it, but for corn on the cob, that "long as cooking time" blanch seems to be the secret to long term quality storage in a home freezer.
As to the raspberries, what I have is clean and dry so I think I'll just put them on some trays in the freezer and then save suggestions to try if it doesn't freeze tonight and there are more berries. It's the Autumn Britten that have been really producing recently, with the Carolines just beginning to ripen a big crop now -- if they don't freeze.