Wild rice casserole is the No. 1 recipe that Minnesota online searchers look for the week of Thanksgiving, says a report in the New York Times, prompted by the recent #grapegate controversy.
No surprise there, but at least it's official. The folks at the NYT who do data research asked Google to analyze the recipe searches prior to the holiday and compare the results to searches in the rest of the country.
It's a fascinating report with some unexpected twists, and worth a visit to browse among the states, if you have time to spare before cooking the big meal.
The authors caution that the recipes mentioned are not the most iconic state recipes (which cooks may already know how to cook and have no need to look for). But they are the recipes that pop up as being most searched.
Surprising on the Minnesota list is the number of sweet salads -- which makes me wonder if this recipe has appeared recently on a cooking show. "Snicker Salad" and "Cookie Salad" and "Apple Snicker Salad" are all in the top five recipes and, if you added up their search frequency, would top the number of searches for wild rice casserole.
The most popular recipes listed for each state include reference numbers that reflect how much more popular a search was in one state than in the rest of the country. Wild rice casserole, for example, has 16 times more searches in MInnesota than elsewhere.
In Wisconsin, it's Brownberry stuffing and pistachio fluff that tie for top of its list, followed by beer cheese dip (the Brownberry company roots are in Oconomowoc, Wis.). Snicker apple salad also appears on its list, along with taffy apple salad.
Iowa also has a sweet tooth, with Snicker apple salad and Snicker salad at the top of its list.
South Dakota has Snicker salad at the top of its list, with a whopping 34 times the national average.
UPDATE: To clarify, Google analyzed searches done the week of Thanksgiving for the past 10 years. The story says that the most popular dish for each state was not the focus of the analysis because, given the searches were conducted around Thanksgiving, that would have resulted in "turkey" for all the states. Instead, the researchers "looked for the most distinct" recipe searches, which is reflected in the lists that are part of the report.
Here's the complete list for Minnesota, as reported in Upshot at the NYT, researched by Google.
Wild rice casserole ... .16x
Snicker salad .............13x
Broccoli bacon salad ...11x
Cookie salad ..............11x
Apple Snicker salad ...10x
Lefse ..........................8x
Scallopped corn ...........7x
Spritz cookies .............6x
French silk pie .............5x
