It’s a well known fact that Americans like their deep fried food; in fact, if this year’s state fairs are anything to go by, they will pretty much deep fry anything.
At the recent Iowa State Fair guests were able to get deep-fried offerings of everything from Snickers, Twinkies and Cheesecake, all the way to deep-fried butter.
Apparently, the strange concoction, of simply a stick of butter that is coated in batter and deep fried, was back by popular demand after debuting at last year’s fair.
The deep-fried butter on a stick, created by entrepreneur Larry Fyfe, who has spent decades inventing and selling foods for fairs, is sold for $4 a pop.
Last year, over 8000 of the products sold at the Iowa Fair.
Officials of the Iowa Fair approached him last year to asked him invent the deep-fried butter option to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the fair’s giant butter cow.
Fyfe was not confident he could do it, thinking the name if it would turn people off, and based on recent attempts that had failed, such as the Texas State Fair.
The success of Fyfe’s creation is dependant on the half-stick (two ounces) of butter remaining very cold, close to freezing, until a customer places an order.
Then it’s dunked into a funnel cake batter that contains cinnamon and other spices, and dipped into vegetable oil at high temperature to heat for up to 90 seconds, before being drizzled with honey glaze and served.
Apparently it tastes similar to French toast or cinnamon rolls at first, but the butter then starts oozing out everywhere.
To that end, a boat provided when it is served catches most of the butter, which is then eaten with a plastic fork.
Fyfe concedes that at fairs in the US, “dignity goes right out the window.”
In what has become a yearly expectation, creators each year come up with something newer and stranger to deep-fry, and this year was no exception.
For 2012, it was a deep fried pickle dog, which unfortunately did not go exactly as planned.
Because the allure (if you can call it that) of the deep fried offerings is that they are served on a stick, making it easier to fry and eat.
This year’s deep-fried pickle dawg, however, which involves a slice of pickle, some pastrami or ham and cream cheese that is then deep-fried, had some issues staying on the stick and instead had to be served in a cardboard box. Where’s the fun in that?
There are 57 products on a stick on offer at this year’s fair, as the fascination with the serving option continues to grow, and expectations are that next year there will be even more.