Brooks Reynolds leads a panel with Eric Campbell, Dominic Iannarelli and others during a dsm Tastemakers event last month at JR’s SouthPork Ranch. (Photo: Jeff Fierberg)
By Michael Morain
dsm Editor
“Our state fair is a great state fair. Don’t miss it. Don’t even be late.”
At dsm Dish, we take that song so seriously we even went early. We invited the dsm Tastemakers to join us a few weeks ago for a food-filled reception at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where a few longtime food vendors shared stories from the trenches or, technically, the deep-fat fryers. Here’s what we learned about some of their best-sellers during a discussion led by Brooks Reynolds of JR’s SouthPork Ranch.
Corndogs
It’s easy to assume the corndog has been a fair favorite since the dawn of time, but that’s not true. Eric Campbell of Campbell’s Concessions said his grandfather Melvin first spotted the treat in California in the 1940s and introduced them as “poncho dogs” at the Iowa State Fair in 1954. The dogs were dunked in a special Pillsbury cornmeal batter and then fried with a Ferris-wheel-like contraption that ran them through the hot grease. Eventually, the company started mixing the batter off-site to ensure consistency and then delivering it to the fair stands, Campbell said, “so all the kids have to do is dip it and flip it.”
Pineapple Whip
According to Campbell, the frozen treat was developed in Canada during World War II, when a dairy embargo prevented Canadians from buying American dairy products across the border. Their solution: a soft-serve sorbet. Campbell bought his first Pineapple Whip equipment at an auction in Topeka, Kansas, from a concessionaire who’d used it at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
Bacon Balls
Chef Dominic Iannarelli of Prime & Providence and Nick Jones of Berkwood Farms developed the original Bacon Ball for the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. It’s a meatball made with bacon, stuffed with bacon cheese and wrapped in more bacon, then smoked and slathered in barbecue sauce. It won top honors at the festival. Four times. So when Iannarelli landed an opportunity to sell food at the fair, he knew exactly what to serve. The Bacon Box serves Bacon Balls, BLTs, bacon-studded pecan pie and, as a palate cleanser, lemonade creamsicles.
Apple Egg Rolls
Mayor Connie Boesen, who owns Applishus, introduced egg rolls stuffed with apples and served with caramel sauce in 2018. It won the people’s choice award for the best new food — and quickly disappeared after the award was announced. “I’ve never seen lines like that. I felt so bad,” said Boesen, who worked off-site till 1 a.m. to restock supplies and returned to the fair before dawn the next morning. She warned other vendors who enter the new food contest: Prepare for success.
AE Party Balls
JR’s SouthPork Ranch introduced these best-sellers in 2024. As chef Sarah Strong-Tuttle described them, they’re fried dollops of cheesy potatoes mixed with “good old AE Party Dip” and coated in potato chips and fried. They’re like the potato casseroles you’d find at a church potluck, she said, so they have “a very Midwestern vibe.”
Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Barksdale family started selling food at the fair in 1976 and introduced their now-famous chocolate chip cookies in 1993, but they took a while to catch on. “Cookies were the worst seller,” said Mindy Williamson, the fair’s chief marketing officer. “Joe (Barksdale) and kept debating his wife to keep making them for seven years. She was like, ‘I’m never doing this again.’”
Sales picked up after the operation moved from an outdoors stand into the Varied Industries Building. “One thing that sells cookies is the smell. It’s like popcorn, right?” Williamson said. When the Barksdale operation moved into its own building a few years ago, “people waited over three hours” to get their buckets, said Williamson, whose team raided Pleasant Hill grocery stores twice that day to buy more chocolate chips. It just goes to show, she said, “If you have a good idea, stick with.”
