Recipe websites get a huge spike on Thanksgiving day. The New York Times, which loves a trend, analyzes them all. Cheese balls in the Midwest! Sweet potatoes in North Carolina! Something called the Broccoli Casserole belt!

According to the Times, sites like Allrecipes and Epicurious and records of Google searches report the following:

  • The butterball hotline expects 11,000 phone calls, and operators will be on Twitter too.
  • Cooks in the Southeast rarely look up pie crust recipes. So they either hate pie or love it so much they know it already.
  • Midwesterners love cheese balls, the people of North Carolina love sweet potatoes, the people of Mississippi prefer pecan, Wisconsiners worship apple and the "broccoli casserole belt extends through Appalachia and ends in Florida."
  • Thanksgiving searches spike in Panama — because there are many ex-pats and retirees there.
  • People tend to search for gravy at 3pm. When they panic and realize they have no idea how to make it.


Also: Everyone plans and shops late (we found that the Jennie-O turkey website simply says 'server too busy'). So you can stop feeling bad.