Fair celebrates Oklahoma Centennial with ‘Fare' cookbook

By Sharon Dowell

Published: August 22, 2007

A new cookbook is coming to the Oklahoma State Fair Centennial Expo, which will open Sept. 13. "Oklahoma State ‘Fare'” will have some prize-winning recipes from past fairs as well as recipes provided by Oklahoma celebrities and plenty of Oklahoma Centennial-related information and recollections.

The book, available beginning on the fair's opening day, will focus on 100 years of cooking and statehood, said Gina Burchfiel, assistant general manager for the state fair. The book will be sold in the Creative Arts Building information booth and at Oklahoma Centennial Commission booths in the Centennial Building and on 14 Flags Plaza, Burchfiel said.

Cost of the book will be $10. Though I have not seen a copy of the cookbook, Burchfiel provided one of the book's recipes, which I am sharing elsewhere in this section.

While the state fair doesn't get under way for a few weeks, you can get a head start on cooking like a state fair champion with a monster-size new book, "Blue Ribbon Recipes: 693 Award-Winners From America's State and County Fairs” written and compiled by Barbara Greenman.

With 400 pages, the hefty book from Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers is a great bargain at just $19.95. I discovered it during a recent late-night visit to my neighborhood bookstore and couldn't wait to get home and go through it, page by page. With recipes from 85 fairs and festivals across the country — including the Oklahoma State Fair and Tulsa State Fair — this book is a winning selection for cooks and bakers.

I love the trivia in this book, including where our favorite fair foods were invented. The St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 is credited with the beginning of the ice cream cone, the hot dog, cotton candy and maybe even the hamburger, although it shares credit with a county fair in New York. Recipes for our favorite fair foods are found throughout the book in special boxes, separate from the award-winning recipes. These recipes include Soft Pretzels, BBQ Corn, Bloomin' Onion and even Deep-Fried Twinkies (you may hesitate doing this one at home, unless, of course, you have the proper equipment for deep frying).

I've already marked the pages of all those must-try-soon recipes with colorful sticky notes. Among the recipes I'll be whipping up soon: the Double-Ginger Bundt Cake made with both ground and crystallized ginger; Coffee-Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake; Jalapeno Cheese Wheat Rolls; Cheesy Apple Bread; Chimayo Corn Pudding from the New Mexico State Fair; Ranch Cheddar Chicken with just five simple ingredients; Pear Salsa With Cinnamon Chips; BBQ Deviled Eggs, a winner from the Oklahoma State Fair; and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Muffins.

Have I tempted your taste buds yet? If so, the cookbook is in major bookstores now, as state fairs and festivals throughout the country continue from late summer right into fall. A recipe from the book follows.

In other food-related state fair news around the country, the Indiana State Fair, which just concluded, was one of the first state fairs to go trans fat-free, according to a news release from the Indiana fair office in Indianapolis.

Dave Schlabach, executive director of the Tampa, Fla.-based National Independent Concessionaires Association, said a number of fair concessionaires have changed to the zero-trans fat oil because it's a higher quality product.

"All the concessionaires I've talked with say their customers like it better,” Schlabach said. The zero-trans fat oil is low in saturated fat and high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

Will the Oklahoma State Fair be going trans fat-free, too? Assistant general manager Gina Burchfiel said not this year, but the fair is open to change, depending on consumer and vendor input.

"To some extent, we're just riding with the consumer and the vendors on this, but we're not insensitive to health trends and doing things at the behest of our consumers. So, if we get some feedback that says, ‘Hey, we see this going on, and we think it makes sense' or if there's a statewide initiative and we can certainly play a part in that, I think we would very seriously consider it,” Burchfiel said.

"It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out,” she said. "I think it's definitely something to watch.”

Newspaper, magazine, online and freelance food writers from across the country are in Minneapolis this week for the annual Association of Food Journalists meeting. They'll be spending a day at the Minnesota State Fair — which runs tomorrow through Sept. 3 — to check out the huge number of food items served at that event, including all the food items served on sticks.

The fair's Web site, mnstatefair.org, includes a user-friendly guide on where to go on the fairgrounds to enjoy wild game sticks, elk burgers, brisket hash, spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, wild rice corn dogs, olives from the Mediterranean, Kool-Aid pickles, Peruvian coffee, fresh-baked cookies and milk and dozens of other selections. The fair is held midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, touts the largest cooking competition among all the state fairs. This year's fair, which just wrapped up, included 216 food divisions, with more than 60 new food contests added this year. This year, it awarded $58,000 in prize money for its food entries.

It continues to offer some great food contests that showcase its abundance of fresh produce and hearty Midwestern cooking and baking with such contests as Cooking With Iowa Fruits and Vegetables, All-Iowa Dinner for Two, the Governor's Cookie Jar, Iowa Orchard Creations, Blue Ribbon Country Canned Fruits, Celebrate Iowa Steak, All-American Apple Pie and My Favorite Meat Loaf.

These contests are so popular that the fair received a $1 million gift from an Iowa family earlier in the year for a new building to house the growing list of food entries and to have enough space for the large crowds that gather to watch the food judging.

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