There is nothing, absolutely nothing, like the scent of grease and dough wafting on an autumn breeze.

It practically whispers to the soul and stomach: The fair's in town, come get you a funnel cake.

Or a corn dog, if that's your pleasure. Candy apples and cotton candy, and the salesman won't even tell your dentist.

All hail portable concession stands. Bless the person who first fried dough, then sprinkled it with powdered sugar.

"They're greasy and fattening, and this is about the one time of year I splurge," said Julie Moeller, who visited the Georgia State Fair on Tuesday not for the rides, not for the exhibits, but for a funnel cake on her lunch break.

It's something of a yearly tradition for Moeller and her friends - lunch along the midway. Lu Peacock - "An elephant ear kind of girl" - promised to be back twice again this week.

"You can only get (elephant ears) twice a year," Peacock said, referring to the fair, which continues through Sunday, and the Cherry Blossom Festival each spring.

But wait. Funnel cakes and their famous fair-food cousins need not be enjoyed only once or twice a year. It's certainly not the same experience, but some of this stuff can be made at home, and here, only in The Telegraph, experts at the Georgia State Fair show you how.

Gravitron, Tilt-a-Whirl and the bearded lady not included.

Funnel cakes

Let's clear up a misconception here: Funnel cakes and elephant ears are vastly different confections. Though sweetened with sugar, elephant ears are made with a bread batter. Funnel cakes are more, well, cake-like and made from what is essentially doughnut batter.

Plus, there's the whole funnel thing, which, as the name suggests, is pretty key.

Bobby Hartsell, who's been making funnel cakes for more than 20 years, uses a large "shallow fryer" to make his funnel cakes, but you can use a regular old pot on the kitchen stove. Whatever size pot you use, that's going to be the diameter of your cake unless you also use a ring to keep the batter together.

Heat vegetable oil to about 350 degrees (peanut oil, Hartsell said, makes the cakes too greasy) and ladle batter into a funnel.

Batter is available through various online services and locally at Coleman Concessions (795 Fulton St., Macon), which carries a variety of other fair food necessities - from cotton candy mix to Sno-Cone flavorings to sticks for corn dogs and candied apples.

Funnel cake batter can also be made at home. Hartsell wouldn't give out his secret, but it starts with flour, water, sugar, whey and several other ingredients added for flavor.

Use your finger to cover the bottom of the funnel, hold it over the oil and let the mixture drop into the pan. Make a criss-cross pattern so the cake will stick together, Hartsell said. Don't use too much mix (you kind of have to get the hang of it, he said) and only turn the cake once, around the time the edges start to brown. Use tongs to remove the cake when it reaches a golden brown and let it rest before topping it with powdered sugar, chocolate, fruit, or Hartsell's favorite, butter and cinnamon.

Corn dogs

Food on a stick - now that's a state fair standard if there ever was one.

And the corn dog, reportedly created for the 1942 Texas State Fair, may be the most popular of the species.

"Elephant ears, corn dogs, funnel cakes; them are your three main (fair foods)" said Vernon "Boomer" Smith, who has been making corn dogs professionally with his wife for some 15 years. "But the No. 1 fair food is a corn dog."

Basically a corn dog is a hot dog with a stick shoved through it lengthwise, coated in batter and fried in hot oil. You can make the batter out of flour, corn meal and a little bit of sugar, but it also comes pre-made.

The most popular mixes are Pronto Pup (which Smith prefers) and Dipsy Dog, both of which proved tough to find Tuesday at local grocery stores.

Dipsy Dog is available locally at Coleman Concessions. Pronto Pup apparently isn't sold in local stores but is available at www.prontopup.net, which offers other carnival favorites as well.

The trick to the perfect corn dog, Smith's wife, Jean, said, is starting with a cold, dry hot dog. If the dog's wet, the batter will slip off. Dip it as thick as you like, then hold the dog (by the stick, of course) in 350-degree vegetable oil, Jean Smith said. Once the dog plumps slightly and seals around the stick (it takes maybe 30 seconds) drop the whole thing in the oil and let it cook until golden brown.

Add ketchup and mustard to taste.

You can also buy frozen corn dogs. They're "not as good as ours," Vernon Smith promises.

Candied apples

Cole Kennedy is a third-generation candied-apple maker. And he burned himself Tuesday, so there's something to be said for leaving this to the professionals.

When you're dealing with a 300-degree mixture of sugar, corn syrup and food coloring "it don't take a minute to get yourself burned," Kennedy said. Heavy rubber gloves, though, offer pretty good protection.

Kennedy prefers a copper kettle for cooking up his mixture because it heats evenly. He uses five pounds of sugar, 12 ounces of corn syrup, a pint of water and four tablespoons of red food coloring to make coatings for about 100 apples. You might buy in lesser quantities than Kennedy does, since he's had grocery stores call the police on him before. Some of the same ingredients can be made into moonshine.

Kennedy likes to use Granny Smith apples because their tartness meshes well with the candy coating. Use firm apples and make sure the sticks are in there good, lest an apple plop down into your mixture, splattering hot sugar everywhere. If that happens, run cold water on any burns immediately, and expect some skin to slough off, Kennedy said.

Dip the apples in the mixture and coat them fully. Then twist them by the stick to sling off the excess inside your pot. If you don't, the candy shell will be too thick to bite through, Kennedy said. Leave the apples to cool or roll them in walnuts, peanuts or candy first.

Kennedy's grandfather started making candy apples in the circus decades ago. His parents followed and now he travels the country doing the same. He said he never tires of it.

"It's so nice to see the smiles on the kids' faces," he said.