Instagram's Most Popular Pies for Thanksgiving Raise a Few Questions

Enjoying a slice of pie for Thanksgiving dessert is a must for most people around America every year. In a post by Instagram to its Facebook page, the photo-sharing app revealed the most popular Thanksgiving pies by state for 2020. You're probably already thinking pumpkin pie was the champion, right? Well, think again. As if 2020 wasn't already weird enough, 14 states loved cranberry pie the most. Wait, what?! That's right; we're talking pie and not cranberry sauce. It turns out the social media commenters were also raising eyebrows at the results.

Even more strange, pumpkin pie is the most popular pie in only three states! According to Instagram, the app sourced the data based on the likes and mentions of pie flavors from in-feed and Instagram Story posts. This is how they stacked up.

Cranberry pie is closely followed by sweet potato pie, with 11 states claiming it's the fave. From there, cherry pie, blueberry pie, and pecan pie tied with six states in their favor. After that, we have strawberry pie with four states. Finally, coming in for the last two spots, we see the expected traditional holiday pies: pumpkin pie (three states) and apple pie (way to go, Connecticut!).

You're not alone if you're scratching your head at these results. Several of the hundreds of Facebook commenters don't understand how cranberry pie won their state, saying things like, "Never in my life have I had cranberry pie." Even here at Better Homes & Gardens, we have very few pie recipes (out of hundreds!) containing just cranberries in the filling without another fruit, such as apples or pears. And while sweet potato pie is a bit more common for a Thanksgiving feast, there are some serious doubts about it taking second place.

It's a mystery how so many Instagram mentions of these less-common pies outranked traditional holiday favorites. But all pie is good pie. No matter which pie you're serving on your Thanksgiving menu, it's sure to be delicious. So plan to enjoy pumpkin pie with a big dollop of whipped cream after roast turkey and all the sides.