Yahoo lets us peek at neighbors' holiday picks

If you want to know what everyone's cooking for Thanksgiving, you could call up all your friends, neighbors and relatives and ask them.

Or -- if you are a journalist -- you could just talk to the folks at Yahoo or at another computer search engine.

"One of the great things about being a media company and a search engine is we have lots of info on what people are looking for. We are definitely seeing what's on everyone minds," said Maggie Nemser, the food editor for Yahoo.

Nemser is not a food editor in the traditional sense. As you might expect for a business that helps people find content on the Internet, Yahoo's food site (www.food.yahoo.com) is mainly a collection of recipes and information from other Web sites. Nemser and others contribute a little original content, but a big part of her job is collecting and organizing.

Getting the T-day nerves

These days, the site is featuring such recipes as spiced pumpkin cheesecake from Kraft Foods, potato mash from Rachael Ray, and lots of recipes for roast turkey, gravy and all the Thanksgiving fixings from Martha Stewart and others.

Nemser said that popular sites visited this time of year include Marthastewart.com, Epicurious.com (for recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetit), Tasteofhome.com (the Web site of Taste of Home magazine) and Foodnetwork.com. Recipes from Ray and Paula Deen are also popular.

"A lot of people go to traditional sites because this is the one time in the year when people have anxiety in the kitchen," Nemser said.

Whereas October was marked by a flurry of interest in pumpkin recipes, Web searchers turn their thoughts to Thanksgiving as soon as November begins.

Yahoo, unfortunately, doesn't release data on the actual number of searches for specific words or phases. But as of a week ago, searches for Thanksgiving turkey were up almost 400 percent over the previous 30 days, and searches for Thanksgiving recipes in general were up 600 percent over the same period. Deep-fried turkey is also high on everyone's list.

And looking ahead...

The hunt for Christmas cookies has started, too, with searches up 1,238 percent over the previous 30 days. "The percentage for Christmas cookies is up more than any other category," Nemser said.

And the top five searches the week of Thanksgiving last year were pumpkin pie, stuffing, pecan pie, apple pie and sweet-potato pie. Is someone worried about not having enough pie?

A lot of people these days are looking for cooking videos, too. Last Thanksgiving Day, Nemser said, the most popular video on Yahoo's food site was the one on how to carve a turkey. Apparently, people were pulling the bird out of the oven, then hopping on the Internet before they cut a slice.

"People really want to see what they're doing on a day like this," Nemser said. "They're afraid they're going to mess it up."

She said she has seen a spike in "Thanksgiving on a budget" and "affordable meals" searches this fall. "People want to maintain their traditions, but they are looking at ways to save money," she said.

"Last year, there was an obsession with getting expensive, free-range turkey. That doesn't seem to be on everyone's minds this year."

Nemser also said that people are looking to tweak their menus if it means they don't have to buy so many groceries.

"I think people are willing to step outside their tradition and maybe find something different based on what they have in their pantry," she said.

"I think people are looking for ways to utilize things they already have."

Another trend is toward ways to accommodate vegetarians. "People are looking to include an alternative to the turkey, but not to exclude the turkey," Nemser said. "They want something more than a glorified side dish, like a (vegetarian) take on lasagna."

Seeing that Nemser spends a lot of her day checking out Internet recipes, you may be interested in a few of her favorites:

□ Chile-roasted turkey with chorizo-cornbread stuffing at Foodandwine.com.

□ Creamy cauliflower puree (an alternative to mashed potatoes) at Eatingwell.com.

□ Martha Stewart's creamed spinach at Marthastewart.com.

□ Mushroom and faro pie, a vegetarian main dish at Epicurious.com.

□ Pumpkin cheesecake with marshmallow sour-cream topping and gingersnap crust at Epicurious.com.

■ Michael Hastings, the Journal's Food editor, can be contacted by phone at 727-7394, e-mail at mhastings@wsjournal.com, or mail at c/o Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. His most recent columns can be read on our Web site at www.journalnow.com.