ALTAMONT — Sue Petrosino remembers as a small child pressing her nose against the glass case in the food building at the Altamont Fair. She peered in at a layered and decorated wedding cake, thinking that it was the most beautiful cake she had ever seen.

Now, at the age of 37, she runs the Arts and Crafts and Food Building at the fair. The women who bring in their baked goods every year don’t look so old anymore, Petrosino said.
Home-baked goods, have historically been made mostly by women, and have played an important role in women’s recognition and status. Families continue their traditions, entering great-grandma’s recipe today in fair competitions. For many people, said Petrosino, "It really is a competition — it’s a big deal."

Each region of the United States has its own food flair and foods that are culturally ranked as more prestigious and important for a person to prepare well. In America’s South, for example, the prize-winner of Best In Fair is often reserved for a cake. In Southern Living magazine’s annual collection of recipes, cakes have appeared on the front cover more than any other food item.

For the Altamont Fair, Petrosino said, the cooking contest that generates the most interest is pies.
"There is more pride in pies," she said.

When people come into the building, one of the most common inquiries is who won best pie this year. It seems to catch the most attention, Petrosino said.

Thinking of the significance of pies to this region, what comes to mind, is all the apple orchards and the ideal weather for berries, including strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

Petrosino thinks pies are popular and significant to Altamont Fair-goers and contestants because: county fairs, apple pies and Uncle Sam go hand in hand, she said. Apple pies are considered all-American and are patriotic, she said.

Variety

But there are a huge variety of food categories at the fair — 88 classes in all. The food competitions are broken down into canned goods and baked goods.

Under baked goods, the subdivisions are breads, cakes, cookies, pies and pastries, and candy.

Canned foods are divided into vegetables, fruits, pickled vegetables, spiced fruit and pickles, and condiments. Relishes, chutney, and minced meat fall under condiments, Petrosino said, adding that minced meat went in this category out of default because it doesn’t really fit in with any of the others.

Classes under candy include fudge, maple candies, and marzipan, although the fair has not had a marzipan entry in years, Petrosino said.

There are then separate youth divisions as well for cooks under 10, age 11 to 14, and age 15 to 19.
As for the adults, Petrosino said, she sees the same people every year and, when a traditional entrant doesn’t show up on Sunday to drop off her product, "we wonder what happened...and worry." A lot of the stereotypical "granny types" enter, she said, but also women from a broad spectrum of ages and men as well.

The number of entries have decreased every year, Petrosino said; the fair receives fewer and fewer entries in the adult food contest. But, at the same time, the fair has seen a lot of growth in the youth division.
"I think that’s encouraging," Petrosino said. It introduces the craft to kids early on, she said, and then hopeful it "becomes important to them and something they continue to be into," Petrosino said.

Judging

Contestants and judges aren’t bound by too may rules, she said. Contestants must bake from scratch and they have to hand in the full recipes with their products for the judges to compare the recipe with the actual taste. And the food has to be removed from its baking container, unless it’s a pie.

Petrosino said that some people have tried to cheat, but the judges can tell right away if something was made from a box.

Also judges consult the recipe, as they figure out what makes the product unique. Petrosino said she is often amazed when a judge can tell that the contestant had used more nutmeg, for example, than the recipe called for.

Not just anyone desiring a free buffet sampling of dessert decadence can sign up to be a judge. Judges are invited to the fair, and live outside the three counties served by the fair — Albany, Schenectady, and Greene — to reduce the chance of knowing one of the contestants. Additionally, all the judges are professionals in the food industry. Many are culinary instructors at colleges, Petrosino said, and some are home and careers teachers from schools.
Some contestants get upset when they don’t win, and they come to her as the director of the building and ask, "Why did I get a third!" Petrosino said. She’s glad that she isn’t one of the judges, first of all, because she doesn’t have the expertise but also, because, when people are upset, they don’t know the person who judged them.

When a contestant is upset, Petrosino said, she goes with them to look in the judges book, and tells the contestant one way to better understand why she placed third is by seeing what she was competing against.
All the judges write comments on their cards. Sometimes, even if a person ranked second, the comments say how the chef can improve her product. "It’s constructive criticism," Petrosino said.
So, for example, she would point out to an entrant that the judge’s comment card said that the cookie was a little too moist, and a person might say, "But that’s how my husband likes them, so that’s how I’ve always made them." Petrosino said she tells the baker that makes complete sense and that she understands that preference, but, ultimately, the decision of a winner is made by the judge’s preference.

The judges receive minimum wage for coming to the fair for a day and are paid for their mileage, so they each get about $40 in compensation, Petrosino said.

The cooks pay a small entry fee of either a minimum of $2 or 10 percent of the total possible first-prize winnings, which is called the first premium, Petrosino said.

Most of the prizes are $5 for first place, $3 for second place, and $2 for third. The winning wedding cake baker and decorator gets $12.

Several companies have started sponsering bigger-money competitions at the fair as well. The largest prize of $150 comes from Fleischmann’s Yeast. Indian Ladder Farms and Altamont Orchards sponsor a $25 gift certificate for a fruit muffin competition. The New York State Apple Association awards $25 for an apple pie contest. And Hershey’s Cocoa Classic comes to the Altamont Fair for the first time this year awarding $25 for a chocolate dessert using their cocoa.

Contestants had to sign up to enter the food contest by the end of July, and will now bring their goods to the fairgrounds on Sunday before the fair starts. The judges then spend all day on Monday deliberating so that on opening day, Tuesday, pieces of the entered products are on display with their designated ribbons.

For fair-goers who yearn to be a taste-testers, in recent years, Petrosino has cut and displayed half of each good and then sliced up and frozen the leftovers on Monday, so that, throughout fair week, she puts out samples to be had for a donation.
"It’s roulette baking goods," Petrosino said, because on Monday she doesn’t have time to put out the displays and also label and keep track of which sample pieces go to what person and which samples are the winners. But people have a lot of fun trying to guess which ribbon belongs to their sample, she said.

Serious business

Money donated for sampling goes toward the building upkeep — things like Windex, Petrosino said. Also every year, the fair puts together a Blue Ribbon Winner Recipe Cookbook to sell. Entrants don’t have to share what they would consider a secret family recipe if they don’t want to, but most are happy to share, she said.

Petrosino explained that not all the recipes are traditional family recipes. Some contestants find out what the special categories are for the year and spend all winter concocting a new original recipe to enter.

The fair sponsored special contest this year is for gingerbread houses.
Some of the contestants who "cook and can know what they are doing are real serious," Petrosino said.

It’s serious business to them because they feel as though they are doing something of value for their families, she said, whether it be carrying on a tradition or, in the case of canning, preparing healthy foods for their families.