Fair ‘food groups’ provide many tasty selections

By KEITH WALKER/News & Messenger
Published: August 13, 2008

By most reckoning there are about five or six major food groups at the county fair.

You’ve got your funnel cakes and turkey legs. You’ve got your sausages with peppers and onions and you’ve got your cheesesteaks and your corn dogs.

And then you’ve got your lemonade to wash everything down.

Granted, you can buy hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries at the fair, but those are readily available every day.

Vendors at the Prince William County Fair recently shared a few of the secrets that help make fair food what it is.

Jimmy Coffield said people should look for lemon squeezers and lemons when they’re looking for the “fresh-squeezed” lemonade.

There are some vendors at the fair who use — heaven forbid — powdered mixes.

“If you see golf balls for lemons, or you don’t see no lemons, don’t buy it,” said the 67-year-old Coffield, who has his stand set up just across from the show barn.

Gene Timmons, whose family has been in the fair business for 39 years, said he special orders sausage when he comes into town.

“Each region of the country has their own special taste. We find the number-one company in that area and we have them make a sausage for us so you’ll have a sausage that you’ll enjoy,” the 51-year-old Timmons said.

Timmons said his sausage, from Kirby Holloway out of Delaware, will suit the tastes of fairgoers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

He said he’ll use 600 pounds of sausage at the fair this year.

Timmons said the taste for cheesesteaks in these parts runs 10-to-one in favor of a creamy cheddar sauce, rather than provolone or American cheese.

Jesse Chapman, of Russell Foods, said the secret to a good fair corn dog is in the batter.

Yellow corn meal is the best, the 23-year-old Chapman said.

“There’s a little bit of honey mixed in there to give it a little bit of sweetness,” he said.“Our corn dogs you can eat plain. You don’t need no mustard. You don’t need no ketchup.”

Scott Langlois, 47, has been cooking turkey legs at fairs around the country for the last six years.

He works at a booth to the right of the main gate with a big yellow and red sign advertising “Jumbo Turkey Legs.”

He said the main thing is not to blacken the turkey legs as they cook over charcoal.

“You cook it on a pit as opposed to an oven,” Langlois said. “Everything tastes better cooked on a pit.”

Langlois also recommends Kingsford Charcoal.

Julie Funk makes funnel cakes at Don Chapel’s booth. She said customers should notice if the funnel cakes are being prepared ahead of time and go to a booth where they’re making them to order.

“When you do it right then and there, you get it fresh and hot,” the 49-year-old Funk said.