Virginia's Most-Googled Thanksgiving Recipe Might Surprise You

Thanksgiving is just days away and the holiday means mountains of food: copious amounts of savory turkey, creamy mashed potatoes and pies. In Virginia it also means macaroni and cheese, ham, and stuffing with oysters in the mix. Contrary to what you might think, most people in the Commonwealth are looking up recipes for a copycat Popeye's Cajun turkey.

That's according to a new report from SatelliteInternet.com, which analyzed the top-searched recipes on Google Trends from November 2017. Turkey and turkey-related recipes were searched for in 13 states, tied for most with green bean and corn casseroles. Thanksgiving dessert recipes, such as pumpkin pie, pecan pie and Jell-O, were searched for the most in 12 states.

But perhaps more interesting, a map of the Google searches showed some distinct geographical trends. The Midwest, for example, was dominated by casserole searches. States that searched for casseroles most included Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Missouri.

Turkey and related recipes were the most searched for in several East Coast states, such as New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, as well as in the West, in California, Nevada and Arizona.

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The Southeast, meanwhile, saw some more variety in its Thanksgiving recipe searches. Three states — Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama — searched for sweet potatoes most, while the Carolinas were looking for mac and cheese recipes. Georgians were most often looking for honey-baked hams, while Louisianans were searching for cornbread dressing.

If you're looking for more festive desserts at your Thanksgiving, take a page out of Alaska or Vermont's cookbooks, where people searched most for pumpkin cheesecake or ambrosia salad recipes.

See Also: Creator Of Thanksgiving Staple, Green Bean Casserole, Has Died: Here's The Recipe

The annual holiday has clearly come a long way since the nation's first Thanksgiving feast in 1621, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony held a three-day festival and ate seafood with the Wampanoag Indians to celebrate a bountiful harvest. Thanksgiving is now celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November, and the average meal for 10 people costs about $49.

SEE ALSO: Best, Worst Times To Be On Road For Thanksgiving In NoVA, DC

About 54 million Americans travel at least 50 miles from home over the holiday, and about 46 million turkeys will be eaten — more than twice that of Christmas and Easter.

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Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.
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