Fairly Unbalanced

Sausage Sister & Me are perennial participants in the Minnesota State Fair’s official new foods list, debuting a new menu item yearly that displays their exemplary sausages in a new manor. Their new offerings have varied in complexity and form factor, as well as accompanying ingredients, some very involved and outlandish and others much simpler. Their new appetizer this year, the 3 Piggy Pals On-A-Stick, is interesting in name only, but otherwise a dull rehash that lacks innovation and excitement.

Three quarter-size diameter sausage bites are slathered with cream cheese and barbecue sauce and wrapped in bacon, then skewered and topped with jalapeño slices, and while the ingredients work well together it was a dull and immediately forgettable creation. Like a meat popsicle, we enjoyed our first bite as a protein-heavy pick-me-up at mid-day, but subsequently it felt too meaty and dense and we were glad there were only three bite-sized pieces as any extra may have gone to the trash bin. As a cocktail appetizer, these would be welcomed, but on a sweltering hot day on the Fairgrounds it felt like too much, especially with the cloying barbeque sauce that was too overpowering. The cream cheese mix is doing everything it can to lend some balance to the taste.

At a whopping $12 for three diminutive bites lazily arranged and presented, these are impossible to recommend among the numerous other, more substantial options at that price. The only saving grace is the sausage, what this vendor is known for, but many of their stand’s other options seem like a better vessels for their encased meats. We’re certain Sausage Sister & Me will go back to the drawing board for next year and hopefully will rethink their strategy and discover something much more worthwhile.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 2
• Appearance: 1
• Novelty: 0
• Value: 0

Overall Score: 3 out of 20 (Fried-Out Flop)

The Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop has not one, not two, but three new food offerings for 2024, in addition to a new Honey Lavender Lemonade drink — their menu in a constant state of flux, their stand keeps us busy every year with new wares to test out. This may be one new food too many, as we detested the Sweet Corn and Hot Honey Cake, but we’re happy to report this Rhubarb Crumble is a much better baked good option to throw in to accompany your choice of their exemplary beverages.

Ordered at the same time as the Sweet Corn Cake, where that was stale and lifeless, this crumble was vibrant and satisfyingly soft and sugary sweet. The rhubarb was rich and present throughout nearly every bite of this muffin-like dish, which was easily large enough to share if you’ve had a full day of Fair food or big enough to be fulfilling if you’re looking for something somewhat substantial. We do feel that as a new food item, it is similar in composure to some of the other offerings from previous years that we recall from their stand, particularly last year’s now-departed Farmer’s Berry Crumble. It’s not plagiarism when you’re copying from your own notes, but we do feel like it’s a little less exciting given that they’re holding close to an existing formula, and we hope next year sees a little more creativity from their bakery department. They’ve also raised the price by a dollar from last year’s crumble, up to $8, still among the Fairground’s more affordable options but cutting into the value proposition a little more.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 4
• Appearance: 4
• Novelty: 1
• Value: 3

Overall Score: 12 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)

We owe you an apology, LuLu’s Public House, we were familiar with your game and we still doubted you. In our 2024 New Foods Preview article, we rated the Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing as an “Uffda,” one of the foods we weren’t excited to try once the Fair began. We should’ve known better, as LuLu’s has been developing hit after hit for a decade and building up a reputation as one of the Fair’s marquee vendors. Thankfully, most of our fears for this dish were unfounded, although the concern over how scalding hot deep-frying ranch dressing would get did hold true (Minnesotans, use your Jucy Lucy-based knowledge and nibble those corners first to let the heat out).

Beautiful in its simplicity, buttermilk, cream cheese, and ranch seasoning combine within a shatteringly-crisp panko breading shell, perfect little triangles that resembled fried ravioli and tasted like a cheese wonton with a little ranch kick. It would have been so easy to overwhelm the senses with an overpowering ranch flavor, but while it is ever-present it is nuanced enough to win over even the doubters. Hot honey sauce is served alongside, and we found it to be an enhancement although unnecessary for enjoyment; although it was made with Cry Baby Craig’s hot sauce, this was the mildest spice level we’ve experienced from a hot honey on the Fairgrounds, adding only a pleasant sweetness that offset some of the ranch tanginess and interplaying well with the cheese element.

If you’re a ranch hater, you’ll still want to steer clear of these, but for all other eaters it’s a fun appetizer to share with a group and discuss with total strangers. At $12 for just four wedges, we thought the price point was a little steep, and it seems like Fairgoers are paying a premium just to get their taste of what’s undoubtedly this year’s most talked-about new food, but we did find them to be a worthwhile snack and novel enough to justify as an “only at the Fair” experience. Next time we’ll know better than to doubt one of the Fair’s most inventive and consistent outposts.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 4
• Appearance: 3
• Novelty: 5
• Value: 3

Overall Score: 15 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)

The Blue Barn is celebrating 10 years at the Minnesota State Fair this year, and their decade of existence has been a wild ride of innovation as they have consistently added at least one new food item to their menu each year to pair with an ever-changing roster of craft beers. They have generally served up quality products with a knack for outlandish concepts that are perfect Fair food, and in particular have done well to reinvent breakfast in ways that will start your mornings off right and set your Fair day up for culinary adventure. In this vein, they have another hit on their hands with their new PB Bacon Cakes, comprised of commonplace ingredients but composed in a one-of-a-kind manor.

Bacon strips are cooked encased in pancake batter and griddled, then topped off with a delightful peanut butter-infused whipped cream, grape jelly, and sprinkled with banana chips, a nuanced combination of elements that all work beautifully together for a cohesive bite, but also stand up well individually of each other. The whipped cream stole the show, delicate but rich in peanut butter flavor, the perfect schmear along the lengthy pancake strips, although we found ourselves scooping it up on its own frequently just to ponder its perfection. We truly have never tried a whipped cream like this, and perhaps because we ate so much of it on its own, we wound up running out of it quickly and were left with a few pancake bites that were devoid of it; a larger portion would have evened things out, though it was so irresistible that no amount would feel like enough. We enjoyed the jelly, although that was even more sparse than the whipped cream, with a complex grape flavor that went above and beyond store-bought. The bacon was thick and thorough and cooked to perfection, as was the pancake batter around it, although our later bites with fewer of the accoutrements proved that it was a little too salty on its own without the sugary elements to mask it.

At a cost of $12.75 for a boat with six large bacon strips, we felt this was appropriately priced on top of being a wonderful way to begin that day’s visit to the Fairgrounds. We think a meat-free version that omits the bacon would be a sensible offering, as the other elements all stood out well on their own. Due to Blue Barn’s limited menu space, many of their food items tend to disappear after just a year or two with only the highest sellers remaining permanent, so to the Fairgoers we recommend you get to this one fast, and to the proprietors of Blue Barn we suggest this one stick around for years to come!

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 4
• Appearance: 5
• Novelty: 5
• Value: 4

Overall Score: 18 out of 20 (Blue Ribbon Best)