Thanksgiving is right around the corner and as people prepare to get their socially distant dinner plans in order, they’ll almost certainly include plenty of side dishes.
Mashed potatoes and green bean casserole are staples of the centuries-old holiday, but some states ― including Georgia — like to eat other side dishes with their turkey.
Zippia dug into data from Google Trends to determine the Thanksgiving side dish people in each state eat the most. After reviewing 20 Thanksgiving classics, they determined which side dish gets a disproportionately high amount of web searches.
“We looked at the month of November 2019 to determine what folks are searching for the most in each state. Traffic for most Thanksgiving sides sky rockets on Thanksgiving day (Turns out, when you’re googling ‘how to make mashed potatoes’, so it most of America),” the career resource website said in its methodology.
The site decided to count gravy as a side, since it’s not a main dish and isn’t a beverage. More uncommon side dishes, such as shrimp cocktails or Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits, were not taken into account.
Many states along the southeast coast prefer macaroni and cheese above all other side dishes, and that includes the Peach State. Other neighboring states that indulge in the cheesy pasta dish are South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
While mashed potatoes were the favorite side of 10 states, it was mac and cheese that came in second place with six states and Washington D.C. enjoying the dish.
One food that wasn’t feeling much love is cranberry sauce. Only New Hampshire likes to revel in the tart, fruity side dish. It shouldn’t be surprising that the dish didn’t make it into many searches across the nation.
The Harris Poll recently used Instacart to survey more than 2,000 Americans to discover the holiday food they hate the most. Cranberry sauce was the winner, with 29% saying they’d rather not have it on their plate.
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