What’s Inside: Today, I’m going to share with you a delightful recipe for making and canning Mexican corn using my trusty Nesco smart canner. This is a Ball canning recipe, so you can can it with confidence, knowing it’s a safe canning recipe. This recipe is equally effective if you’re using the Carey canner.
My husband loves good old fashioned, canned corn. You know, the type of canned corn you buy at the grocery store for well under a dollar a can. Because of that, I’ve never bothered canning corn, especially since I don’t grow corn.
This article includes affiliate links.
But when I came across the Mexican Corn recipe in the book The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving (Amazon), I was intrigued. The recipe in this book is a huge step up from the canned corn you buy at the grocery store. not only does it have, in addition to corn, peppers and onions, it also has spices, making it truly different from anything you can buy at the grocery store. To me, that’s a big part of what home canning is all about – canning things you can’t buy at your local grocery store. This Mexican Corn recipe certainly fits the bill!
The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving
The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving is my new favorite canning book. It’s the book I used for the recipe in this article, and it has a ton of other delicious canning recipes as well as recipes that incorporate your home canned food.
Canning Mexican Corn in the Nesco Smart Canner (Video)
In the video above, I walk you through the entire process of making and canning Mexican corn, using the Nesco canner.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Making and Canning Mexican Corn
This recipe is adapted from The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. For five pint-sized jars, we’ll be using 2 pounds of thawed frozen corn.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of bell peppers
- 2 cups of diced onions
- 4 teaspoons each of smoked paprika, cumin, and kosher salt
- Vegetable or chicken broth (heated)
There are a couple of things to take note of, when it comes to the ingredients. The first thing is when it comes to pressure canning, the exact amount of each ingredient isn’t as crucial as in water bath canning. So, feel free to adjust the quantities to your liking!
Organize Your Canning Life without Breaking the Bank!
My Canning Planner Printables will help you accomplish and keep track of your canning goals and projects so you can stock your pantry with home-canned food your family loves!
In fact, I did just that. The Mexican corn recipe in the book calls for oregano, and instead of oregano, I substituted smoked paprika. I actually wanted to use Tajin (Amazon) , because I love Tajin on corn. When I checked the ingredients for Tajin online, it stated that it had peppers, lime, and salt. but I must have purchased a different variation, and when I got it home, I saw that it had other ingredients such as anti-caking ingredients, and I wasn’t sure how that would work in a canning recipe.
But the bottom line is to feel free to use different spices than the recipe calls for. If you like it hot, perhaps add in some powdered chipotle or cayenne pepper.
Adding the diced bell peppers to the corn. Adding onions to the corn and bell peppers. Talking about why I decided not to use the Tajin and instead used smoked paprika in the Mexican corn recipe Pouring in the smoked paprika. 4 teaspoons of cumin Pouring the cumin into the Mexican corn The recipe calls for 4 teaspoons of salt. Next time I’ll use less. Pouring the salt into the Mexican corn. Stirring the corn, peppers, onions, and spices to combine the ingredients thoroughly.
Preparing the Mexican Corn
Once you’ve got all the ingredients assembled, combine them in a large bowl.
Stir until they are evenly mixed. This ensures that the flavors are well-distributed and that no single jar ends up with too many spices or too few peppers.
Filling the Jars with Mexican Corn
A canning funnel makes it easier to fill the jars with the corn mixture. Add either vegetable broth or chicken broth to the Mexican corn mixture. Be sure to debubble the corn. Use a debubbling tool, a chopstick, or a plastic spatula to debubble. Use a headspace tool to ensure you have 1″ of headspace Wiping the rims with a paper towel that you’ve dipped in vinegar to remove any food particles from the rim helps to ensure a good seal.
With your jars heated and ready, begin filling the jars with the Mexican corn mixture using a canning funnel. Aim to leave a one-inch headspace at the top of each jar. After filling, pour in the heated broth, adjusting your fill level as needed to maintain the correct headspace.
After filling, use a debubbling tool to release any trapped air in the jars. Then, wipe the rims clean with a vinegar-dipped paper towel, place the lids on, and secure them fingertip tight.
Using the Nesco Smart Canner to Can Corn
Put the canning rack in the bottom of the canner. Pour in 8 cups of hot water. 5 wide mouth pint jars fit into the Nesco canner perfectly. Shut the lid, and move it into the closed position. Press the high button Press on the plus button until you reach 55 minutes. Press the start button After it counts down from E10 to E0, switch the valve to airtight. The display will show 55 minutes.
Place the rack that comes with your Nesco canner at the bottom and add eight cups of hot water. Then, carefully place each of your jars into the canner. Close the lid, lock it, and switch the valve to the exhaust position.
On the control panel, select high pressure and set the time for 55 minutes, which is the appropriate amount of time for canning Mexican corn. Press start and wait for the digital chase to finish. Once the correct pressure level is reached (E10), switch the valve to airtight. The canner will then count down from E9 to E0.
Once it reaches E0, switch the pressure valve to airtight again. Now, the countdown from 55 minutes begins. When this countdown ends, the canner will beep and display “off.”
At this point, unplug the canner and leave it alone for at least an hour, allowing the pressure to come down naturally.
Final Steps in Canning Mexican Corn
After about 90 minutes, when the pressure has completely reduced, you can safely open the canner and remove your jars of Mexican corn.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully canned your own Mexican corn. The flavor is truly remarkable, though you may find you want to adjust the salt level to your personal taste in future batches.
Canning can be a fun and rewarding process, and with recipes like this one, you can enjoy flavorful, homemade dishes anytime. Happy canning!
Related Articles
If you enjoyed this article, you will also enjoy these related articles: