Kentuckians are particular about their country ham, so it’s no surprise that the Kentucky State Fair hosts an annual charity breakfast auction with ham on the menu. In 2021, the Grand Champion Ham sold for $4.8 million. If your budget doesn’t extend that far, you can enjoy a simple ham biscuit for a much lower price at the fair.

When it comes to wacky, unique state fair events, Iowa’s Outhouse Races may take the prize. Teams of three pushers and one driver move their custom wheeled “outhouses” to a toilet covered in chocolate syrup, which the driver must clean without the use of their hands. The driver then must find a corn cob in a slop trough and change a toilet paper roll before going back to their outhouse. The first to return to the finish line wins $300 and, more importantly, the Golden Toilet Seat.

At the Arizona State Fair, you may find yourself spoiled for choice when deciding how to eat your scorpion. You can opt for a regular deep-fried bug, or you can have one dipped in batter and then chocolate. If scorpions make you feel a little squeamish, crickets and grubs are offered as an alternative.

Mark Zable spent years experimenting with new foods to sell at his family’s stand at the Texas State Fair, and in 2010, his fried beer won the fair’s coveted “Most Creative” award. The treat looks like a ravioli made of pretzel dough, with each doughy cushion filled with beer. In contrast, fried Coke is made by adding Coke to funnel cake batter.

For the home of the Rocky Mountains, a pet rock contest seems like a perfect fit. At the Colorado State Fair, pet rocks are dressed and decorated, then judged on the originality of their costumes. For stones that are more athletically inclined, there's a separate rolling contest to determine which pet rock can go the distance.

You wouldn’t be surprised to find fried Twinkies at your local state fair; the cream-filled cake has long been a fairground favorite. But one vendor at the 2015 Orange County Fair raised eyebrows by selling a Twinkie topped with luxurious caviar for a whopping $125, which quickly went viral.

Oregon is one of the top five dairy-producing states in America, and the state flaunts its billion-dollar industry at its state fair. Attendees can test their luck and stomach capacity during the Milk Chug-a-Lug competition, and little Oregonians can show their appreciation for dairy during the Milk Mustache contest.

The Alaska State Fair is perhaps best known for its impressive giant fruit and vegetable competition. Past heavyweight champions have included a 2,051-pound pumpkin in 2019, which broke the previous record by nearly 600 pounds, and a 138-pound cabbage in 2012.

In 2011, the Iowa State Fair introduced its newest delicacy: a whole stick of butter coated with a cinnamon batter and fried. The deep-fried stick was created to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the debut of the fair’s famous life-sized butter cow statue. Fried butter had appeared a few years earlier at the Texas State Fair, but Iowa’s fair took it to the next level by frying up an entire stick.

The Eastern States Exposition, nicknamed “the Big E,” acts as the state fair for each state in New England, offering up to six times the fun of a regular state fair. At the heart of the Big E is the Avenue of States, consisting of six historical statehouse replicas representing the six states of New England, each stocked with local specialties.

Chef Charlie Boghosian is often nicknamed “the king of fried foods.” Over the years, his many deep-fried creations have gone on to become staples of state fairs across the country. His inventions include deep-fried Coca-Cola, Spam, pop tarts, and more. In 2001 he unveiled the deep-fried Oreo at the Orange County Fair.

While nearly 39% of all North Dakotans attend their state fair, and the Texas fair draws the largest total attendance (around 2.2 million) over the course of the 24-day affair, the Minnesota State Fair packs in nearly the same amount (2.1 million) in about half the time. The popular event is nicknamed “The Great Minnesota Get-Together” but attracts tourists from all over the Midwest to the impressive 322-acre Twin Cities-area fairgrounds.

State fairs have always been a hotbed of culinary innovation. Hormel Foods decided to harness the collective creativity of fairgoers by holding local cooking competitions featuring their flagship canned meat, SPAM. In 2019, April Weinreich’s SPAM Baked French Toast recipe took top honors at the Minnesota State Fair.

A popular fairground treat, elephant ears are large, flat patties made of fried dough that resemble their namesake. They are known by various names around the world, ranging from the simple “fried dough” to “otter tails.” In Canada, they are named for a beloved national mascot, the beaver.

Considering the state is also the home of the Kentucky Derby, it’s only fitting that the World’s Championship Horse Show takes place annually at the Kentucky State Fair, too. It’s just one draw of the 11-day affair, which features over 1.3 million square feet of indoor space, an outdoor area spanning 300 acres, nine stages, and eight giant tents.

Rain ruined vendor George Boyington’s stock of hot dog buns in 1939, but he recovered with the idea of a bunless, battered, and fried weiner. His solution, the Pronto Pup, was a smash at the Minnesota State Fair. Around the same time, the Fletcher family claims to have introduced the corn dog during the Texas State Fair.

Many state fairs host cow-calling competitions, but cattle is scarce in Alaska, so contestants there bellow out their best moose imitations instead. The calls of both female cows and male bulls are put to the test in what the Alaskan Tourism Board calls “a spectacle unparalleled in outdoor circles.”

It might seem odd for a dentist to invent a food made from nothing but sugar, but that’s exactly what William Morrison did in 1897. With his partner, he created a machine to spin sugar into a light, airy candy. Their “fairy floss,” or cotton candy as it became better known, was a huge hit at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

The buckeye is a tree (and nut) found all over the Buckeye State of Ohio. Sadly, the nut is inedible, deep-fried or not. However, Ohioans have a fondness for a treat consisting of a peanut butter ball coated in chocolate, made to resemble and named for the state nut. Brian "the Deep-Fry Guy" Shenkman — inventor of the fried Oreo and fried Milky Way, to name just two — made room in his fryer for the special treat for Ohio fairgoers.

In 1841, New York earmarked $8,000 for the “promotion of agriculture and household manufacturers in the State" via an annual statewide fair. It drew about 15,000 people, mostly farmers, who heard speeches, saw animal exhibits, and checked out manufactured goods. The most popular event was something scarcely seen today — a plowing contest.