Homemade is the rule at Kentucky State Fair

When thousands of culinary contestants tote their cakes, cookies, pies, canned goods and other homemade entries to vie for blue ribbons at the Kentucky State Fair next week, they will see a new sign posted by the pie police.

“ATTENTION,” says a new sign in the South Wing of the fairgrounds. “By entering an item in the culinary department of the Kentucky State Fair, you are acknowledging and certifying that you have used no commercially produced products such as frozen pie shells, boxed cake mixes, canned frostings or any like products.”

That increased scrutiny follows the case of the Pillsbury Pie Crust. Last year, Valley Station retiree Linda Horton’s buttermilk pie lost its blue ribbon when she disclosed that her Pillsbury pie crust “was so buttery.”

Scratch cooking is the abiding rule for most fair contests. In the pie category, for example, page 204 of the Kentucky State Fair Premium List and General Rules states that for “Pies,” Division 3304, “No Commercial Pie Crusts May Be Used.”

Stakes are high for contestants and the fair’s reputation, said Culinary Superintendent Stephen Lee.

“We take this seriously,” Lee said. “As much as this is all for fun, we want everybody to be playing in the same sandbox.”

Exhibits like homemade food, quilts, crafts and photography are the biggest draw for state fair goers, according to a 2014 survey, Kentucky State Fair spokeswoman Amanda L. Storment said, followed by fair eats like the Kentucky Pork Producer’s fried pork chop sandwich, funnel cake and the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger.

Commercial products are at the heart of some fair cooking contests. Up to 84 cooks have entered the the popular “Evan Williams Bourbon Cooking Competition,” up to 130 are throwing down in the “Great American Spam Championship” and 102 adults and children are crafting sweets for a Kentucky State Fair first, the “Dole Canned Fruit Dessert Competition.”

Commercial contests have their place, especially for the decades-old Spam competition.

“Everybody wants to know when you’re looking at a can of Spam,” Storment said. “What do you do with it?”

Enforcement comes as state fair officials look to boost attendance during the annual event back toward 600,000 annually, from a historic nadir last year of around 515,000.

Homemade food on exhibit “is what fair goers expect to see,” Storment said. “Those culinary entries are just as big as the quilts and the livestock. That is people’s handiwork. That is their talent. A lot of pride goes into that.”

Back in the Culinary Department, just one adult baking category allows a store-bought mix, “Your Favorite Cake, Made with a Commercial Mix and Your Special Ingredients.”

Among the 4,300 registered entries otherwise, 293 bakers will bring pies, 250 home cooks registered to enter a favorite pickle or relish and another 105 are competing for “Favorite Cookie,” Lee said. For “Favorite Cake,” the most popular contest resulting in a printed recipe in the Courier-Journal, 54 home cooks registered by the July 1 deadline, he added.

Those numbers will grow, Lee added, “because many people bring two or three pies or items apiece.”

A panel of 36 judges award points for qualities like artistry, color, flavor, color of crumb, filling and flakiness. Commercial entries are usually easy to spot, he said.

“You can just sometimes really tell when something is commercially made,” Lee said. “You can taste the chemicals in it and the stabilizers, and the metallic taste.”

As a result, fair staff will point to the new sign and talk about the rules, Lee said, when each of 2,000 contestants arrive beginning Sunday to place their homemade food on 94 exhibit tables or inside dozens of cabinets and coolers in the South Wing.

The rules will “be square in the face of people when they bring their items,” Lee said. “Part of my instruction to all my assistants is going to consistently say all day long, “have you seen this sign?”

Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669, @JereDowns on Twitter and Jere Downs on Facebook.

Kentucky State Fair Cooking Contests

Look for cooking contests on the Gourmet Garden Stage in South Wing A. Thousands of homemade items are displayed in the Culinary Department nearby in the South Wing.

•Kentucky Farm To School Junior Chef, August 21, August 29

•Evan Williams Bourbon Cooking Competition, August 21, 6 p.m.

•Gold Medal Flour Cookie Contest, August 24, 6 p.m.

•The Great American Spam Championship, August 25, 6 p.m.

•Dole Canned Fruit Dessert Competition, August 26, 6 p.m.

•Kentucky Pork Challenge, August 27th, 6 p.m.