Photo by Deb Gau The aebleskiver eating contest at Aebleskiver Days drew a range of participants, from adults and teens to kids.

TYLER — Aebleskiver are an important part of Tyler’s community festival, and on Saturday there were two very different ways for people to get some of the ball-shaped Danish pancakes.

Inside the 4-H pavilion at the Lincoln County fairgrounds, a long line of people waited to be served a breakfast of aebleskiver and sausage. Outside, a smaller group of people were planning their strategy for the aebleskiver eating contest.

Jackson Noble suggested putting maple syrup on the aebleskiver.

“It helps them go down,” he said.

The eating contest was one of the many events held Saturday during Aebleskiver Days. Contestants in two age groups raced to be the first to finish a serving of aebleskiver — four ‘skivers for the 12-and-under competition, and five for the adult competition.

As soon as organizers yelled “Go!” contestants crammed aebleskiver in their mouths. They were allowed to use their hands, which wasn’t always the case in past years’ competitions, spectators said.

“Chew! Chew!” chanted some of the crowd as they cheered on the contestants.

Although contestants were allowed to pour syrup on their aebleskiver, many swigged bottled water instead to help them swallow. Each competition ended with the first person to eat all the aebleskiver in front of them.

Although the rounds of competition were each over in the space of a couple of minutes, wolfing down aebleskiver wasn’t an easy task.

“I always forget how big these are,” Colten Thomsen said of the aebleskiver.

“It gets stuck in your throat,” said Colby Noble, after taking part in the kids’ competition. Even with syrup, the ‘skivers were tough to swallow that fast, Jackson Noble said.

Gavin DeJesus said his strategy was to drink a lot of water to wash the aebleskiver down. It worked for him – Gavin was the first in his round to finish his aebleskiver.

“I didn’t taste them at all. I just drank them,” DeJesus said. However, he said it wasn’t easy on his stomach, especially by aebleskiver number four.

DeJesus said he had just heard about the competition, and decided to try it out. Some of the other contestants Saturday said they were in it for the fun, too. Thomsen and Alex Kuestermeyer started out their round of competition by feeding each other an aebleskiver.

“We were going for just messing around,” Kuestermeyer said. Although the situation might have been funny, actually eating all the aebleskiver was tougher, they said.