What New BBQ Have You Tried Making Lately?

I need to make a confession. Over the last weeks, I have been secluded like everyone else. Except in my case, I have been quite content.

I have a great home with a big yard and a dog that likes to run through the lawn. I also have a nice area on my deck where I keep a propane grill and a couple of Kamado smokers.

My wife and I have had lots of time as of late to try some new dishes we had not gotten around to. With work and a social life, we often stick to our traditional favorites when we are home because we often have little time for trying new things. Recently I tried a new homemade rub and it got me to thinking; I wonder what other people have been trying during this quarantine.

Whenever I want to know things, I turn to Google as probably most do. I used their Trends tool and started a little research. I attempted a few queries to figure out what others had been searching for. The first thing I noticed was a very large spike in all sorts of BBQ related searches during this Covid-19 breakout. This of course make sense with so many home, such as myself, and little to do.

Photo courtesy of Smoke Ring King BBQ

I conducted searches from March 24 to April 21, a 30 day period and started finding what I was looking for. “How to Smoke…” and with that, I began adding all sorts of my favorite meats and from there, I dug a little deeper on popular cuts that others searched for. I finally ended with a total list of fifteen different searches in the last thirty days and sorted to find out which was the most popular thing people were learning to cook.

In total, across the United states, it was Ribs that people were wanting to learn how to smoke.

Data Source Google Trends – Image courtesy of Love of Food Magazine

Please keep in mind some states had so few searches, there was just not enough data to create any analysis. Sorry Maine, Alaska and the rest.

In creating the list, some choices were made. Should it be cuts of meat? What about type? How much segmentation; beef ribs compared to pork ribs. (pork ribs definitely won in that match-up, by the way). When all was said and done, I decided on the 15 below. In order of popularity, here were the searches. How to Smoke –

Ribs Brisket Chicken Turkey Pork Butt Pork Shoulder Pork Loin Salmon Chicken Wings Pork Ribs Beef Ribs Tri Tip Lamb Deer Rib Roast

This wan’t a contest. It’s not like I was trying to settle which barbecue style is better. Or… maybe I should do that for the next blog.