If you want a taste of foods you actually eat at annual state fairs, you can push a stick into any random food item around the house, dunk it in pancake batter, then into a pot of hot oil. This is better. Since 2009, the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance has held the Heirloom Recipe Competition at various state fairs, highlighting family recipes that have been handed down for generations. Each entry comes with a story, like that of Amy Wertheim's peanut brittle, which won second prize at the 2011 Illinois state fair.
In 2004, Amy Wertheim saw her family’s candy store burn to the ground. Along with equipment and more than 500 pounds of treats, she lost something far more precious: her grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ handwritten recipes. “Of everything we lost, that was the most devastating,” she writes.
One way Wertheim filled the void was by collecting cookbooks. At an auction in 2010, she picked up a weathered collection of personal recipes written down for a new bride. “As I turned the pages, I started seeing names I recognized … and then I saw the name, Mother Hoblit.” It was her great-grandmother’s family nickname. She also noticed something stuck in the book’s folds. “My hands were shaking as I unfolded the crackling paper … there, in my Great-Grandmother’s handwriting, was our lost peanut brittle recipe.”
Since state fairs and their competitions have been canceled this year, you may want to try some of these award-winning recipes at home. Gastro Obscura shares the recipes for blue ribbon pies, cakes, candy, biscuits, and moreover, the stories behind them.
(Image credit: Sam O'Brien for Gastro Obscura)