How Much Corn is On an Ear?

It can seem frustrating to try a new recipe and not know how much of an ingredient to purchase at the store. Sometimes they call for "1 cup of corn kernels" or "the kernels from two ears of corn". That's a fine description if you are using frozen corn or fresh corn respectively, but otherwise, exactly how much corn is on an ear of corn? In order to help make cooking easier we did some experiments to help tell you exactly how much corn you need to buy.

To answer How many ears of corn kernels make a cup we went to the grocery store to check out the produce section. When talking about sweet corn, a small ear tends to measure less than 6.5 inches long and a large ear more than 7.5 inches. Therefore, a medium ear usually falls somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 inches long and 2 inches across at the widest point. For our test samples we purchased medium ears of corn and headed home to the kitchen.

To answer the question How much corn is on an ear we removed the kernels from medium ears of fresh corn. While the yield of the corn kernels will obviously vary by the size of the cob, it was surprising to see a heavy 1/2 cup to a 3/4 cup result range within the "medium" size corn cobs. More often than not, our medium ears of corn produced 3/4 cup of kernels when cut from the cob.

So if your recipe calls for 2 ears of corn, you can now confidently know that it means about 1.5 cups of corn kernels. And "How many ears of corn do you need for 1 cup of corn kernels" is about 1 and a third ears of corn.

Did you know that corn is technically a grain, not a vegetable; it is a cereal crop that is part of the grass family. The ear is really part of the corn flower and each kernel is a seed. Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob. Popcorn is a special type of corn grown that when heated it bursts into hot, fluffy kernels - yum! And corn is used to produce fuel alcohol which makes gasoline burn cleaner, reducing air and water pollution.

Now that you know how much corn is on an ear we hope this will take away some of the guesswork when trying to substitute fresh and frozen corn in your favorite recipes. You can also use our conversion tool below for any custom how many corn ears in a... measurements you need. If you de-corn a lot of ears by just using a knife you should definitely look into getting a good corn stripper to greatly speed up the process. I feel comfortable recommending the Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper since it's inexpensive, easy to clean and I use it at home!

A Ear of Corn Equals

• There is ¾ Cup (177 mls) of Corn Kernels in a Ear of Corn

Custom Conversions for Ear of Corn

Get this on Your iPhone!

Did you know that you can get this on your iPhone or Android so you can always have this information available? Just go to the iTunes store or Android marketplace or search for "Produce Converter" and look for our easy to find icon!

Next time you need to know how much Corn Kernels is in a Ear of Corn you can simply look on your iPhone or Android and find out.

What is the Produce Converter?

One of the biggest hassles when cooking and working in the kitchen is when a recipe calls for "the juice of 1 lime" or a similar measurement. Often times when cooking people use bottled juices, pre-sliced vegetables and other convenient cooking time savers. Produce Converter will help you convert the "juice of 1 lime" and other similar recipe instructions into tablespoons, cups and other concrete measurements.

Produce Converter can also be used to figure out how many vegetables to buy when you need, for instance, "A cup of diced onion." You can use our easy conversion tool to figure out exactly how many onions you need to buy at the store in order to end up with the amount you need for your cooking.

We hope you enjoy Produce Converter and if you have any suggestions for how we can improve it and make your cooking easier please let us know.

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