Customer Reviews

Blue Ribbon USA: Prizewinning Recipes from State and County Fairs

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There are a number of incredibly wonderful blue ribbon recipe cookbooks available by such authors as Catherine Hanley, Margie Jensen, and Maria Polushkin Robbins -- which include the contributors' comments about what makes their recipes so special, and which were carefully tested by the authors, who added their own observations. Recipes from those books are unfailingly delicious; I have never been anything but thrilled with the results, and guests always beg for the recipes.

In contrast, this book doesn't include any comments from either contributors or author, who did not even bother to test the recipes. Many (if not most) are from small, unknown fairs (i.e., not blue ribbon winners from the state fairs!),or from the kiddie division of the state fair - with no clue as to how many candidates there were, or whether they scored most of their points for flavor or appearance (and I, for one, don't care about perfect appearance, so am solely interested in taste). Many are for meat; almost all seem yucky. There is also only one recipe per state -- unlike the other books mentioned, which provide a large selection of treasured, well-tested recipes.

In short, this book was a humungous disappointment. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! IF YOU WANT A WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF BLUE RIBBON WINNERS, DO AN AMAZON SEARCH, AND PICK A BOOK WITH TRIED-AND-TRUE FAVORITES.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I've actually tried some of the recipes, and they were interesting, fun, and imaginative... maybe not things to make every day, but that's not the point. They're representative of what people make to win a blue ribbon at a fair, and the range of ideas is as varied as, well, the population that visits state fairs. With one recipe per state, it's not meant to be a comprehensive "winning recipes" cookbook - there are plenty of those out there already. The jist of this little book really is more about the colorful posters replicated on the pages facing the recipes, the quirky stories, and the marvellous variety you can find across this land. Have a sense of humor and enjoy this charming little find for its whimsy.

Having loved the other "USA" cookbooks in my collection, I was disappointed with the contents. Not many of the recipes were actually enticing enough to try. A disappointment.