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Gonzales, who has twice won top honors in the State Fair of Texas' annual contest for best new midway food, is back this year with deep-fried butter, a dish that's drawing gasps from even the most hard-arteried eaters. The snack will go up against fried peanut-butter-cup macaroons, deep-fried peaches and cream, fried stuffed peppers and fried pork chips with gravy for the Big Tex crown this Monday.
And it comes in four flavors.
While fair officials don't require participants in the competition to fry their entries, spokeswoman Sue Gooding concedes most savvy vendors reach for their deep-fryers.
"We also have fruits and vegetables," Gooding says of the fair's more than 200 food stands. "But the corn dog was invented here. So most everything is fried."
Gonzales, whose previous stabs at corn dog-level fame included fried coke and a fried PB&J sandwich, swears his love of toast inspired him to create deep-fried butter (Paula Deen, who last year circulated a fried butter balls recipe, apparently wasn't his muse.) He wraps butter in dough before frying, so the finished product resembles an especially greasy biscuit.
"It's similar to having a dinner roll with a lot of butter," Gooding says. "It's very good."
Still, Gonzales worried the treat wouldn't appeal to sweets-fixated children or their parents, who might reasonably wonder whether shelling out for deep-fried butter would be considered good child rearing.
"That's why I threw in the flavors," he says.
Deep-fried butter is available in four varieties: original, garlic, cherry and grape.
Gonzales feels good about his chances in this year's competition, although he's sure he could win it if he turned his sights on the vegetable kingdom.
"Salad's the threshold," he says. "If anyone could deep-fry salad, I'm up for it."
Butter Sculptures
A butter sculpture of golfer Tiger Woods made by Norma "Duffy" Lyon, on Aug. 9, 2005, at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Lyon, who has carved a life-size dairy cow out of butter at the fair for more than 40 years, has in the past made butter sculptures of actor John Wayne and country singer Garth Brooks.
Charlie Neibergall, AP
Norma Lyon touches up her butter sculpture of Barack Obama following a town-hall-style meeting by the then presidential candidate at South Tama Middle School on Dec. 27, 2007 in Toledo, Iowa. The bust was made from 23 pounds of butter. The stop was part of a scheduled five-city campaign swing in the central part of the state in an attempt to gather last-minute support before the Jan. 3 caucus.
Scott Olson, Getty Images
A sculpture of Wilber and Orville Wright, carved out of butter, stands on display at the Ohio State Fair on July 31, 2003, in Columbus, Ohio. The sculpture is part of the butter cow exhibit in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight.
Terry Gilliam, AP
Sculptor Norma Duffy Lyon sitting among figures at head of life-size butter sculpture rendering of "The Last Supper."
Layne Kennedy, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
A butter sculpture of an Amish man selling vegetables to a woman and her son is unveiled at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., on Jan. 4, 2001. The sculpture was crafted of 750 pounds of donated butter and includes vegetables made of butter and colored their respective colors. It pays tribute to Pennsylvania produce.
Paul Vathis, AP
A section of the 2009 Butter Sculpture is seen at the 93rd annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., on Jan. 8, 2009. This year's sculpture is dedicated to the Pennsylvania National Guard and depicts a Guardsman saying goodbye to his family.
Carolyn Kaster, AP
School children look at the 2008 Pennsylvania Farm Show's official butter sculpture at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center on Jan. 3, 2008, in Harrisburg, Pa. The sculpture is made of 900 ponds of butter and is of three children and a cow waiting to board a school bus.
Carolyn Kaster, AP
The "Butter Cow" display is viewed at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill., on Aug.15, 2008. It is a pastoral scene that includes a butter cow, a butter calf, a trio of butter skunks, a butter tree, a butter log, a butter bird and butter snakes. Sculptor Sharon BuMann, who is from New York made the display which uses nearly 800 pounds of unsalted butter.
Seth Perlman, AP
Pennsylvania Dairy Princess Rhonda Kieklak of Wattsburg, Pa., stands behind a butter sculpture depicting former President Dwight Eisenhower feeding an Angus calf after unveiling at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., on Jan. 4, 1996. The sculpture was carved from 800 pounds of butter.
Paul Vathis, AP
Norma "Duffy" Lyon works on a Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle made of butter on Aug. 6, 2003, at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Lyon, who has carved a life-size diary cow out of butter at the fair for more than 40 years, is creating the full-scale motorcyle to celebrate Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary.
Charlie Neibergall, AP
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9-03-2009 @1:14PM The Kitchen Monkey said... Wow. I always thought that Paula Deen would be the first to do this. Still, sounds horrifying even as much as I love butter.
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9-03-2009 @1:53PM Andrea said... I like the butter sculptures. The fried butter, not so much.
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9-03-2009 @2:10PM bsw said... totally, completely, utterly shocking that americans have such a problem with obesity ...
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9-03-2009 @2:46PM amanda said... They had me curious until cherry and grapes flavors were mentioned. Ick
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9-03-2009 @10:13PM Bert said... What is strange is that this isn't new to me. I don't remember where I heard about it the first time, but it did take me as a shock back then.
The author described taking a stick of butter, wrapping it in dough and then frying the whole thing.
It was a comfort food from when they were growing up if memory serves right.
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9-04-2009 @3:36PM Nicki said... Don't worry about Paula, she's done this already...http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/paulas-fried-butter-balls-recipe/index.html
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9-06-2009 @4:14PM Infinity said... lol. i think it's funny, but i hate to say it doesn't even sound Good to me. i'll stick to butter on my steamed green beans or butter on my corn-on-the-cob, a nice buttered biscuit but "deep fried butter" is over the line for me.
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9-06-2009 @6:18PM MomOfThree said... Deep fried butter? I feel my arteries clogging just thinking about it.
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9-06-2009 @7:01PM ANNA said... Ewww. Thats all I can say, EWWWWWW.
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9-06-2009 @8:07PM TED said... Someone's always coming out with something different. I personally will pass on this one. I do love a little butter, tho'. But if no one never tried to create something new or different, there's lots of things we wouldn't be enjoying today. But I think this is probably more of a novelty than anything else.
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9-09-2009 @8:54PM redgrrl said... I'm in awe that you could fry butter without it all disappearing. That's what I'm impressed with.
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11-03-2009 @9:40PM homingmuhdha said... It just came to me:anyone who ate fried butter and other fatty fair foods,should feel relief some of the constipation and/or hemorrhoid you have for many years.
fatty food may have the key for so many common illness, which increase in numbers by the hour.
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