Top-Searched Foods To Grill in Every State

It’s officially time for one of America’s most popular activities: firing up the grill. 

While steak and burgers have been the long-standing favorites, recent data reveals that Americans are getting slightly more adventurous with grilling, and perhaps healthier. There’s been high Google search volume for grilling foods like salmon, asparagus, and zucchini within the last year.

In this study, we researched this question: “What foods do Americans want to grill?” We analyzed Google Trends data for “how to grill [food]” to reveal the top searches nationwide and by state. You can check out our Methodology section to learn more about how we gathered this data.

Main Findings

• Salmon and ribs are the top two foods Americans are learning to grill in 2023.
• Americans are still learning how to grill hot dogs. In two states (New York and Texas), hot dogs is the most commonly searched grill term. 
• Midwesterners eat their veggies—asparagus and corn are the two top-searched grill items for many of those states.
• Southerners are the most creative in grilling, with 10 foods seeing a high search volume in Southern states—more than any other region.
• Northeasterners want to grill a variety of seafood, with top searches including lobster, salmon, and tuna.

The Top-Searched Foods to Grill in Every State

Regionally, we saw varying trends, some more expected than others. 

The Northeast featured a large variety of seafood, with a high search volume for how to grill salmon, lobster, and tuna. Not surprisingly, this was the only region where lobster was present.

Also unsurprising, the Midwest was the only region where Bratwurst—a type of German sausage—was one of the top-searched terms. There is a larger percentage of German-Americans living in the Midwest than in any other region, with more than 30% of the population identifying as German in six states: Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

America’s Heartland region also produces more corn than any other part of the country, so it checks out that corn is one of the most sought-after foods to learn how to grill. Surprisingly, asparagus was tied with corn, followed by zucchini and hamburgers.

Southerners are, comparatively, getting more creative on the grill. We found that 10 different foods saw a high how-to search volume in the South, compared to just eight in the Northeast, seven in the West, and six in the Midwest.

Ribs are most popular in Southern and Western states, with very high search volumes. In the South, ribs were the top-searched term, followed by tuna. Ribs came second to salmon in the West, both followed by steak.

Americans Are Leaning Into Healthier Grilling Options

The data reveals a growing trend for healthier options on the grill. Salmon was the top searched term (tied with ribs), followed by asparagus as the second-most searched. Zucchini, tuna, steak, and corn were in a four-way tie for the third-most-searched foods.

Tuna, pineapple, and eggplant also ranked within the top 10 most-searched terms. Squash, peppers, mushrooms, and lobster rounded out the top 16.

5 Ways To Up Your Grilling Game in 2024

Trying new foods and recipes is a great way to improve your grill skills. But if you want to become a true grill master, try some of these tips:

Upgrade Your Grill

A great grill cook can grill on anything, but having a top-of-the-line grill can help. It might be time to upgrade if your grill is old, rusty, or simply not performing well. Check out our picks for the best gas grills of 2023.

Invest in the Right Tools

A metal spatula may come to mind when you think of grilling, but there are other grill tools you’ll want to have on hand for the best results. Long-handled tongs help flip meats and veggies without getting too close to the flames and can also be used to clean and oil the grill. We also recommend using a meat thermometer to ensure the meat is cooked safely and to your liking. 

Let It Warm Up First

This tip may vary depending on what you’re grilling, but many experts recommend preheating the grill on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking. You can use this time to practice your cornhole board skills for the next party you host. If you haven’t cleaned your grill since its last use, you may want to turn it on high to burn off grease residue.

Keep It Clean

Cleaning your grill is not only a safety issue due to the risk of grease fires, but it can also affect the taste of your food. If you don’t have a grill brush, you can use tongs and a ball of aluminum foil to scrub food remnants off the grates. Of course, most of the particles will fall into the bottom of the grill, so you’ll want to regularly take the grates out and remove all the residue to reduce flare-ups and continuous smoke.

Have Plenty of Fuel on Hand

Few things are worse than inviting people over for a cookout and running out of gas before you’re done grilling. Buy a few extra propane tanks to avoid the mid-party dash to fill up a propane tank if you have a gas grill.

Our Conclusion

It’s not just hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Americans are getting increasingly creative by learning to grill new foods. Google Trends data also shows a lean toward more nutritious foods on the grill, including salmon, asparagus, zucchini, and tuna all within the top five most popular search terms for grilled foods.

Our Methodology

We used Google Trends data from June 2022 through May 2023 to find the top grilled food items in each state. 

Google Trends is a tool that allows users to compare search terms to discover how popular they are at a certain time and against other terms. Google presents data for each term on a scale of 0 to 100. We analyzed terms for “how to grill [food]” for 16 meats, fish, and vegetables to see what was most searched for in each region.

Those figures were then normalized by comparing them to the anchor word “grill.” This word served as a control variable, preventing places and terms with the most search volume from ranking the highest. The final score we ranked on represents how popular the food terms (salmon, ribs, burgers, etc.) are relative to the control term (grill). For each state, we found the food with the highest score. 

Fair Use Policy

We encourage journalists and reporters to share our findings on grilling trends across states. If you choose to do so, please link back to our original story to give us proper credit for our research.

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