Turkey: A National Icon and Popular Dish
As the largest ground nesting bird native to the North American continent, the wild turkey was valued by Native Americans for their delicious meat and beautiful feathers.
Today, Americans eat domesticated turkey year-round but continue to make special turkey recipes a centerpiece in holiday meals with creative stuffings and sauces. With a brand new turkey emoji in the spotlight, Americans are more than ready to celebrate this Thanksgiving!
Americans Go Crazy over Turkey during Thanksgiving
“Turkey” searches peak in online searches year after year in November.
And as you can guess, most Americans search for recipes on how to cook it and places to buy their turkey.
Based on Google Trends, the search term “turkey” is most popular in the states of Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, with Indiana and Vermont rounding up the top 5.
As for cities that are most obsessed by turkey, Nashville takes the crown with Washington, DC, and Louisville rounding up the top 3.
According to a popular belief, Benjamin Franklin originally wanted to make the wild turkey the national bird of the US, instead of the bald eagle. But this is just a myth. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin indeed wrote that he found the turkey more respectable than the bald eagle, which he considered a bird of bad moral character. However, this was never expressed publicly.
Happy Thanksgiving on behalf of all of us at Busbud!
Read More on How To Recover From Thanksgiving Weekend
Methodology
We used the interest index from Google Trends to rank cities and states using the search keyword “turkey”.
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More About Turkey in the US
National Turkey Federation – turkey consumption statistics
Turkey Hunting Nation grade by Realtree