America’s 5 Most Outrageously Insane State Fair Foods
The smell of vats of oil and grease fills the air as soon as you step foot within a few miles of the fairgrounds, and believe it or not, that's a very good thing. Many of the fair's edible creations are so greasy that you can almost see the calories floating up into the clouds! From deep-fried beer in Texas to SPAM curds in Minnesota, we've tracked down the top state fair foods across America.
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Sure, the petting zoos, 4-H competitions, horse shows, and midway are all part of the fun at the fair, but the crazy food concoctions often take center stage. Ask anyone who has been to a state fair and they'll tell you all about the outrageous dishes you can try. Now that state fair season is beginning to come to a close, we've had a chance to see just about all of them, and thought we'd take a look at some of the wildest foods being served at these quintessentially American celebrations.
Fair food is known for being greasy, fatty, and high in calories, not to mention unexpected and outrageous. It's food that is just plain bad for you. But, when most of the foods involve deep-frying, what else would you expect?
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Corn dogs, funnel cakes, and cotton candy have been fair favorites for years, but recently vendors have started getting extremely creative when it comes to meeting the demands of their customers who expect flavor, portability, and creativity in every morsel of food they eat. In fact, one-upping each other when it comes to serving food on a stick has become something of a competition between vendors.
Customer demand has led to the invention of some truly outrageous foods. The Minnesota State Fair, which is one of the most inventive when it comes to food, unveiled more than 40 new foods this year, including "Comet Corn" - caramel popcorn made with liquid nitrogen - and peanut butter and jelly malts and sundaes. And the Arizona State Fair played up the ick factor with items like the Maggot Melt Sandwich and Mealworm Caramel Apples, while Oregon is known for its famous food dubbed "Road Kill," aka oddly shaped fried dough.
Taking into account originality, ingenuity, portion size, and calorific insanity, The Daily Meal sorted through hundreds of fair foods to create a list of the most outrageous foods found at fairs across the country. A ranking from one to five, with one being the lowest score, was assigned to each category to develop a mathematical formula. After the ranking was done we crunched the numbers and came up with the 5 most outrageous state fair foods. Do you think you'd be able to handle all this deep-fried deliciousness?
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5. Scrapple, Delaware
Visitors to the Delaware State Fair love scrapple. This unusual dish is made from the scraps of leftover pork combined with cornmeal, flour, and spices. Once the mixture is turned into a loaf, state fair vendors deep-fry it and hand it over to the customers. If there is one thing to be said about scrapple, it's that it's a "no-scrap-left-behind" kind of treat.
4. Deep-Fried Taco Cheesecake, Wisconsin
Ready for something that is a combination of two things that don't seem to go together? Introducing the taco cheesecake. It sounds crazy, but the Wisconsin State Fair found a way to make it work. Before it hits the deep-fryer, a tortilla shell is stuffed with cream cheese. After coming out of the fryer it's topped with cinnamon sugar and whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate, strawberry, or caramel sauce.
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3. Giant Deep-Fried Gummy Bear, Ohio
Each item at the fair has to be bigger and more outrageous than the next, and Ohio's giant deep fried gummy bear is no exception. This 5-inch tall cherry gummy bear is deep-fried in vanilla or chocolate batter before being stuck on a stick.
2. Pancake Burger, Nebraska
The pancake burger is like a mobile version of brunch. Similar to a donut burger and available at the Nebraska State Fair, the pancake burger features a burger, topped with your choice of condiments (like cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.) and squished in between two pancakes. And yes, adding syrup is an option.
1. Cheeseburger with Deep-Fried Ice Cream, Florida (pictured above)
As if cheeseburgers weren't already greasy and fatty enough, let's add some deep-fried ice cream to the mix. This fair food item found at the Florida State Fair is by far one of the highest in calories and not at all nutritious, though if you're sneaky you could argue that it includes all food groups. (Tomatoes are a fruit, right?) It hits the top of our list for its originality, portion size, and of course, high calorie count.
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-Emily Kolars, The Daily Meal
