close

Judging baked goods at the fair a tough assignment, but someone’s got to do it

4 min read
article image -

Imagine visiting a well-stocked bakery and having the person behind the counter tell you, “Have a sample… of absolutely EVERYTHING.”
That’s what it’s like being a judge in the baked goods department of the Washington County Fair.

As recently as last year, I had judged Saturday specialty contests, including youth and adult Spam competitions at the fair, plus yummy, yeasty recipes. As part of a panel that does collaborative judging, there’s a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of a dish or item. (We must have been on the right track – Washington County’s Spam Kid Chef went on win the national youth Spam contest with her perogi-like Spam casserole.)

But on Friday,the eve of the fair, departments schedule what is known as “judging in the halls.” I showed up at 4 p.m. to find table after table laden with a daunting array of cookies, cakes, pies, breads, rolls, fudge and muffins. Several pieces of candy, cookies and so forth constitute a single sugary entry, so I’m sure there were actually more than a thousand treats.

In truth, I didn’t have to sample absolutely everything. Valiantly tasting her way through the task was fellow-judge Erica Shrader of Avella, who faced something like 27 entries in the chocolate-chip cookie category.

Some judges taste and spit, but I decided that would be uncouth unless the entry was truly inedible. So I sampled the tiniest sliver whenever possible and managed to avoid acid reflux. A portion of pie, however, has to be somewhat bigger because a top crust has a different texture than a bottom crust. Take those two components and add the pie filling, and one has quite a fork-full. If only I had room to try more than a smidge of the apple-blueberry prize winner! I was kind of looking forward to checking out the doughnut category, but, alas, there was nary an entry. As soon as we finished a category, the entry, perhaps with a little nip or tuck taken out for tasting, was whisked to a bake sale table.

Not every entry is prepared with the sweet tooth in mind. Someone submitted a sausage-taco quiche in the “other” pie category. There were home-friend potato chips for which one chef with true kitchen smarts had the foresight to place in tightly-sealed canning jars to ward off both moisture and humidity (even though baked-goods central at the fair is located inside an air-conditioned building.) And although I’d never before tasted jerky, its saltiness and protein was a welcome change. (Jerky falls into a miscellaneous category, so it was up against a sturdily-constructed gingerbread house, of all things.)

The best-of-show should really wow everyone, and that, plus a meow or two, was the reaction people had when they saw Maria Hoefler’s cat cake. She formed the kitty from crispy-rice and marshmallow mix, saying it was inspired by a child’s request for a birthday cake. “Since it was for a child’s birthday, I wanted it to be completely edible,” said Hoefler, who’s day job is manager of a medical office. Perhaps she should consider a side venture along culinary lines.

Chef’s hats off to all the aproned ladies who made this fair contest run as smoothly as possible under the direction of Cathy Reddick. If only I’d have thought to bring a Thermos of chicken broth to sip on the way home to counteract the calorie-laden carbohydrates …

Barbara Miller is a staff writer at the Observer-Reporter. Follow her on Twitter at @reporterbarb.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today