Old Birds, New Sides
Recipe website Allrecipes.com expects a significant increase from the 11.5 million home cooks who visited the site in November last year.
Meanwhile, results from Allrecipes’ annual Thanksgiving Trends survey demonstrate what the community will be looking for as they prepare this year’s holiday meal:
- 82 percent of respondents said they plan to try a new side dish recipe this year, while only 15 percent are willing to mess with the tried-and-true turkey.
- Preparing dishes from scratch continues to rise, with 66 percent of home cooks making their meal from scratch, up 11 percent year over year.
- Positive ratings and reviews from peers are the most important factors that help home cooks choose holiday recipes.
The top three challenges of Thanksgiving are having dishes ready at the same time (36 percent), finding room in the fridge for leftovers (12 percent) and finding time to shop, cook and clean (12 percent), though women are three times more likely to feel pressed for time compared to men (13 percent versus 5 percent).
America is divided over what makes the perfect stuffing, according to the survey. Forty-one percent of respondents prefer stuffing prepared outside of the bird, 27 percent prefer it prepared inside the bird and 32 percent don’t care how it’s prepared as long as it’s on the table. Cooks in the Northwest are most likely to skip the stuffing, Midwest cooks are most likely to choose a boxed stuffing and Southerners are three times more likely to choose a cornbread stuffing compared to other regions.
Allrecipes.com has released “Thanksgiving Menu Mania,” a collection of themed menus from the site’s more than 3,700 Thanksgiving recipes from home cooks across the country.
“With millions of home cooks in our community, there is a wide range of tastes and expectations for the Thanksgiving spread, which is why we created Thanksgiving Menu Mania,” said Lisa Sharples, Allrecipes president. “Thanksgiving is the most important food holiday of the year and Allrecipes is consistently ranked the No. 1 food site for Thanksgiving. We are committed to meeting our community's expectations as the ultimate destination for Thanksgiving meal planning.”
A division of Reader’s Digest, Allrecipes receives 434 million annual visits from home cooks who discover and share food experiences through recipes, reviews, photos, profiles and blog posts.