Baby corn or candle corn is a cereal grain taken from corn (maize)

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 harvested early while the ears are very small and immature. It typically is eaten whole–cob included—in contrast to mature corn, whose cob is considered too tough for human consumption. Baby corn is eaten both raw and cooked. Baby corn is most common in Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several tiny regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial China and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian...

. In Thai cookbooks, it is referred to as candle corn.

Growing baby corn

There are two methods for producing baby corn: either as a primary crop or as a secondary crop in a planting of sweet corn or field corn

Field corn

Field corn is maize of varieties that are not, in the United States, grown primarily for consumption as human food in the form of fresh kernels. More than 98% of corn-growing land in the U.S...

. In the first method, a seed variety is chosen and planted to produce only baby corn. (Many varieties are suitable, but those developed specifically for baby corn tend to produce more ears per plant.) In the second production method, the variety is selected to produce sweet or field corn. The second ear from the top of the plant is harvested for baby corn, while the top ear is allowed to mature.

Baby corn ears are hand-picked as soon as the corn silks emerge from the ear tips, or a few days after. Corn generally matures very quickly, so the harvest of baby corn must be timed carefully to avoid ending up with more mature corn ears. Baby corn ears are typically 4.5 cm to 10 cm in length and 7 mm to 17 mm in diameter.

External links

• What is Baby Corn? Pamphlet From Washington State University
• Expanded publication From Washington State University