Maize is harvested from maize plants when it is still unripe and very small (approx. 4.5–10 cm). No special type of maize is required, but plants have been bred whose ears are used more often for their taste and tenderness. They are delivered peeled, have a white-yellow to light greenish color, are elastic, firm and juicy. The taste is very fresh and pleasantly sweet.

Small corns are eaten whole, including the cob, which is still fragile and very tasty (unlike ripe corn, whose cob is hard). Corns are excellent raw, but also cooked. The spikelets can be cut crosswise into blocks of different lengths, but also lengthwise; in both cases, the cuts are very decorative. Cooking or other heat treatments do not significantly change either the texture or taste of the spikelets – however, fried ones have a slightly nutty flavor.

It contains a lot of sugar, starch and fiber, so it is very nutritious. Other health-promoting substances are vitamin C, B vitamins, provitamin A, calcium, iron and potassium. In Asia, it has long been considered a vegetable delicacy, it is grown mainly in Thailand and Taiwan. Corn as such is a very old crop, the first finds are up to 70,000 years old, sowing and cultivation date back more than 5,500 years. Corn was brought to Europe from Latin America, where it was one of the basic components of the diet of the Mayans and Incas, but it was also grown in the territory of today's Canada.