Deep-fried butter hit the national stage last month when Republican presidential candidates visited the Iowa state fair. While covering the candidates national media outlets did the almost-obligatory stories on fair food which included deep-fried butter.
If deep-fried butter wasn’t the least-healthy food on the planet it was certainly in the top 10, I figured. And I vowed I would never touch the stuff.
Deep-fried butter made it’s debut in Yakima at this year’s Central Washington State Fair and I got the opportunity/challenge/short straw to shoot deep-fried butter.
Faith Haney brushes melted butter on her deep-fried butter at the Central Washington State Fair Sept. 27, 2011. The butter helps keep cinnamon sugar in place once it's sprinkled on top of the deep-fried treats. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)
It doesn’t look unappealing. In fact, this version of deep-fried butter looks somewhat like hush puppies (a traditional Southern dish) if you don’t look too close.
I photographed the butter being fried and prepared but the best photo came when Tony Harris decided to try the treat.
Tony Harris eyes the order of deep-fried butter he just purchased from Faith Haney at the Central Washington State Fair Sept. 27, 2011. The golf-ball-sized treat may be topped with fruit jam or cinnamon sugar. Haney figures each six-ball serving has about 500 calories. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)
Tony later said he liked the deep-fried butter; I can only take his word for it.
Faith, the owner of the concession stand and deep-fried butter chef, pressed me to try some. I couldn’t say no. She was just too nice. Besides, she had just let hang around her food stand for more than hour taking photos.
I sampled two, one with fruit jam and the other with cinnamon sugar. How good were they? Let’s just say two were enough. More than enough. About two too many. But hey – at least now I know.
And by the way, hush puppies taste way better than deep-fried butter.
–Gordon King
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