Corn Stock

We finished up the last of the corn from our CSA.  Last year, there was so much I ended up freezing a lot of it; this year, we just ate it all.  All except the ones that had caterpillars inside.  2013 was the year I learned to always check the corn for caterpillars.

I did, however, freeze some of the corn cobs after the corn had been cut off.   Why?  To make corn stock!  

This is the part where Foodgoat rolls his eyes, because no vegetable stock can hold a candle to homemade chicken stock, and because I am taking up limited freezer space with something he would thrown away.

But corn stock is so easy it seems a shame not to get that extra use out of corn cobs. 

All you do is put corn cobs in a pot of water and simmer it for an hour or so along with whatever you have on hand, like carrots or celery or parsley or peppercorns or bay leaves.  You can use the mild, light stock for corn dished like corn chowder to get that extra corny flavor, or wherever you might use vegetable broth, like soup or rice, or you can make corn cob jelly.

And now that you've eked out two uses from the corn cobs, you can throw them out.  Or you can compost them.  Or you save them for next year's garden, to see if an old corn cob really does act like a sponge when placed underneath a tomato plant to help it grow.  Hmmmm.