Anyone looking for a meal to take to a family reunion could take notes from the cooks who participated in the cookoff at the Wood County Fair.

With the fair celebrating 150 years of fair family reunions, it was only fitting to have a family reunion theme for the annual cookoff competition.

Cooks were asked to enter their best recipes for beef and noodles, a potato side dish, bread pudding and ice cream. The cookoff was held Wednesday.

“That’s what my family reunion is known for,” said Jessica Nagel in explaining the categories.

Nagel, who is also on the fair board, has coordinated the cookoff for years.

“I can’t wait to try the beef and noodles or the potatoes,” she said.

There were 25 total entries, she said.

People line up to try the entries at the fair cookoff.

Marie Thomas-Baird | Sentinel-Tribune

Debbie Weihl took first place in all categories except ice cream.

Weihl said her secret with her beef and noodles was allowing the beef (seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic) to cook “forever,” either in the oven for 4-5 hours or in the slow cooker for 8 hours “so it just falls apart.”

She also added celery and onion “because I think it gives a better flavor.”

Weihl’s hashbrown potato bake has “everything that is fattening,” including sour cream and cheese. It is topped with panko.

“If it calls for 8 ounces of cheese, I go and throw in whatever is in the bag,” Weihl said, adding that she also uses garlic.

This is the first time she’s ever made bread pudding. She used her home-canned apple pie filling.

Weihl, of Perrysburg, is a regular competitor.

“I look forward to it,” she said. “I just love to do it.”

Sarah Murillo, of Perrysburg, took second place with her beef and noodles and third place with raspberry bread pudding.

“These are amazing,” judge Julie Allen said as she tried the bread puddings.

Murillo’s bread pudding had raspberries, heavy whipping cream, egg yolks and whites and Italian bread.

This is the first year she’s entered all the categories.

“I think the theme is perfect. It goes with the potluck idea,” Murillo said. “I felt like it was an opportunity to share some of the recipes that I found.”

The bread pudding dates to 1908 and her potato apples were from 1939.

The beef and noodles recipe was her mom’s.

Alice Godsey, Perrysburg, entered all categories but ice cream.

“I wrote off ice cream,” she said with a laugh.

Now that she is retired, she had time to enter the competition for the first time.

Godsey said she often competed in the Clark County Fair and had a lot of fun.

Her potato bake had cheese, green onions and sour cream in it, while her bread pudding was made with French bread, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg and, of course, eggs and milk.

Godsey didn’t win in any of her categories.

Bruce Kidder took third place with his beef and noodles; Joyce Fausnaugh and Norma Lybarger took second and third place, respectively, with their potato dishes; and Angel Mercer won second for her bread pudding.

The single ice cream entry was from Murillo, who made a custard with rose extract and rose syrup, cardamom and pistachio. The recipe came from her brother-in-law who is half Iranian.

Carole Garrett volunteered to be a judge this year.

“I like it, it’s fun,” she said, added that judging was difficult.

“Every category was hard except for the one that had just one entry. That made it pretty easy,” Garrett said.

The competition “was phenomenal. Every time it was really, really tough to pick the top three,” she said.

The cookoff was originally designed to promote local commodities, such as beef and pork, Nagel said.

It has since been changed to incorporate the local vegetable production and more family-style cooking, she said.

There have always been baking competitions at the fair but the cookoff features home-cooked, family-oriented dishes, Nagel said.

“This is the best kept secret on the fairgrounds,” she said about the cookoff.

The event is open to anyone who wants to sit and enjoy a home-cooked lunch.

Jack and Betty Whitacre know all about it. They’re regular attendees of the cookoff, which is held in the Home and Garden building.

“I keep coming back because everything is so good,” Betty Whitacre said, “and it’s all different.”

Jack Whitacre said he likes the variety every year.

“I think the entries are great,” Nagel said, “and I think the categories did exactly what we were trying to do, which was feature comfort food and families.”

Nagel hinted that next year’s theme, which will be decided in January, may be international.