AllOTSEGO EXCLUSIVE • THE FAIR FOODIE

Best Pancakes Wind Down Otsego Fair

By LIBBY CUDMORE • allotsego.com

The best pancakes in Otesgo County can only be found during the best six days of summer.

 The Otsego County Maple Producers set up their all-day, all-you-can-eat pancake and French toast stand in the barn at the front of the midway.  After all, breakfast – even if you eat it for dinner, like I did– is the most important meal of the day.

For $7, you get as many fresh, piping-hot pancakes or pieces of French toast as you can eat, served with sausage, applesauce and coffee or tea, all smothered in butter and local maple syrup.

I don’t know what it is about these pancakes, but they are the best pancakes ever made.  The edges are crisp and the centers are soft, they taste like whole wheat and buttermilk.  These aren’t just any old box-mix pancakes.  These are homemade flapjacks, just like you might find down on the farm to get you ready for a long day of bailing hay.  The moo-ing from the dairy barn nearby helps add to the atmosphere (the smell, however, does not).

And the syrup!  Thin and sweet, you only need a little to get the full flavor, although it is easy to overdo it.   The sausages are hearty and well flavored, made even better, yes, by the addition of syrup.   The applesauce is a nice, unexpected touch, the perfect way to round out the meal when you’re too full for “just one more” pancake.

They also have maple cotton candy, but were out when I was there.  Luckily, there’s always next year!