"state fairs" news and stories

State fair season is winding down, and if your traditional rhubarb crisp failed to take home a blue ribbon this year, don't despair: there's always next year. Whether you still have a chance to snag a prize in your own state, or you're plotting a comeback for 2011, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has compiled some tips for whipping up a winner.

The main message from judges and contestants alike seems to be: looks matter, but taste matters more. Taste, texture and moisture content are key, according to one judge, but if there's a tie, pretty, level cakes with evenly distributed frosting win over lopsided and deformed ones.

If you're thumbing through your recipe box trying to decide what to enter, a good strategy is to choose the recipe that garners the most praise from your friends and family. In other words, if your plate of peach cobbler consistently comes home empty from your church potluck, then you may have a winner.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• State Fairs should be called Fried Fairs -- test your local festival knowledge.
• Lamb Jam, mint not required.
• Why stop at one bloody mary? Build a whole bar!
• Summer is sweeter with corn.
• German potato salad's got nothing on these fingerlings.
• Are Ben & Jerry conning us during National Ice Cream Month?
• Zucchini crostini -- say that five times fast!

At least, at the Texas State Fair it is. It's Deep-fried Coke.

Abel Gonzales Jr. flavors his batter with Coca-Cola, deep fries it, drizzles Coke fountain syrup on it, then tops it all off with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry. Gonzales's creation won for creativity at the second-annual Big Tex Choice Awards Contest, beating out such delicacies as deep-fried macaroni cheese and deep-fried Cosmos.

Deep-fried Coke may sound weird now, weird enough to get a little Farking, but back in 1942, a cornbread-battered hot dog on a stick might have sounded weird, too. Now we have corn dogs.