Food economics may have wrought their wrath on American National Barbecue food purchases. But not preferences. The Top 10 List of most-preferred BBQ foods includes some classics and some new-comers. And the order they fall in may surprise you!
Take a good look: Beef still reigns supreme on the US BBQ frontier. But other foods are sneaking up the back stretch. And some of them you really wouldn’t have guessed. Well, I didn’t, anyway…
Search data tells the tale
Economic factors prevail in some areas of the Innerbody.com survey report: “We analyzed Google Trends search data from all 50 states and Washington, DC, identifying each state’s favorite grilled food, the states most interested in grilling overall, and the foods gaining momentum in the weeks leading into summer.”
No beef with Beef. But…
Americans still massively prefer beef on their grills, in spite pf unrelenting high prices. Which is to say, their preferences were gauged by what they searched for on the Internet. Not by what they act-ually bought at the supermarket. But let’s just go with the Innerbody flow and see how the results stack up…
I was truly surprised at how many states reflected residents’ preference for steak – no fewer than 18 of the overall 50 ranking one or another cut highest on their list. However, of the 9 different steaks that topped various states’ survey results, Rib Eye accounted for 4, Flank or Skirt Steak for 4, Carne Asada for 3, and ‘all others’ for the remaining 7 states. And Burgers – surprisingly – were also the favourite grilling food in only 3 states. All told, a total of 21 states for Beef.
Chicken captured top spot in 10 states. Hot Dogs and sausages together accounted for 5 states.
The REAL surprise
But the real surprise was that vegetables ranked first in the list of preferred grilling foods in 8 states – all in the Midwest or the Northeast. What are they grilling? Zucchini in Rhode Island and Nebraska. Mushrooms in two others. Eggplant, Green Beans, Peppers and Onions rallied one state each.
But guess whee they prefer grilling onions to all other possible grill foods? Texas! Now, Kansas is the self-proclaimed Barbecue Capital of America. They make more high-end consumer and pro grade smokers and grills there than most of the other states combined. But you’d think Texas, with a much larger population, and the shared naming kudos for Tex-Mex cuisine, would be a leading Beef state.
But Innerbody’s Paul Aguilar – a native Arizonan – knows his Texan neighbours are still big Beef lov-ers. Probably the biggest in America. But he postulates that they just don’t search for beef grilling information in huge numbers because the vast majority of them already know how to grill any kind of beef you can throw at them. Grilled onions, on the other hand, are a relatively new craze among Texas ‘cue fans…
Geographical distribution
Beef preference swept the Southwest, the Mountain states and Pacifica. With the exception of a tight little group of densely-populated, wealthy states including New York. New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware.
Chicken preference was prevalent in the Deep South and Near-Midwest.
Hot Dog preference was concentrated in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Burgers were preferred above all in the Midwest, as were various veggies.
Fish and Seafood were most preferred in Hawaii, Louisanna, South Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts.
My take
Even before I read Aguilar’s speculative opinions on why some states preferred unsuspected grill foods, I was pretty sure, just based on my own hunches, that Texas was pulling a ‘sleeper’ of sorts on the survey data mashers.
At least 7 out of every 10 households in the US own and use grills. Summer is the undisputed ‘high season’. But a significant number of grillers practice their art year-round. Grillers in the southern climes, where the winters are easiest on body, soul and grill, make those the most active grilling regions.
But this upsurge in preference for grilling veggies has me thinking I’d better perform due diligence on that subject with an eye to future posts…
~ Maggie J.