America's 50 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.
Click here to see the Most Outrageous State Fair Foods (Slideshow)
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?
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 50 most outrageous state fair foods. Do you think you'd be able to handle all this deep-fried deliciousness? Click here to see it all.