Chicory’s Bi-Weekly Recipe Trends: Week of 6/22

The summer solstice is behind us, which means summer is officially here! And cooks and bakers nationwide haven’t missed a beat. While most states still have some degree of stay-at-home orders enacted and others have started to reopen with locals choosing to cautiously continue social distancing, we’re seeing consumers take to the kitchen in record numbers to whip up summery treats and prepping for Independence Day with Americana favorites.

Summer Cooking Trends

And while we find that most summer cooking trends have a slight predictability to them, that doesn’t make them any less tasty! Grilling and picnicking continue to reign supreme on the season, with shoppers eager to spend time in their backyards with classic, American dishes that the whole family will love. This is particularly interesting following the interest in trying out global cuisines, which we observed in late April.

We anticipate that these recipes and ingredients will continue to trend at least through July 4th, at which point back-to-school planning usually takes over.

Top recipes include strawberry shortcake and classic fried chicken.

Lazy Daisy Cake

Classic Strawberry Shortcake

Crispy Fried Chicken

Southern Shrimp and Grits

As we looked at top recipe keywords, it became clear that summery fruits and veggies are top-of-mind among consumers, with views of recipes for cakes, salads and pies growing, while views of recipes for bread, cookies and chocolate have declined over the past two weeks.

In March and April, views for bread recipes grew by 120% and views on yeast grew by 317%. But those shoppers who’d taken on the role of at-home-bakers are now left with pints on pints of sweet summer strawberries and are hungry for creative ways to use them while they’re perfectly ripe! 

Similarly, while “salad” grew in popularity, top salads over the past two weeks include seasonal fruits:

Recipe Usage and Orders

We’re continuing to monitor recipe traffic, keeping a close eye on whether recipe traffic will slow down as various states enter new phases of reopening. But, the increases in recipe usage and online grocery usership remain up at similar proportions across our network.

Recipe views, compared year over year, remain up by 96%. While we had previously anticipated that usership might drop during the summer months (as it typically does), it has only dropped by about 10% compared to the height it reached in April.

Recipe ordering maintains its gains at an even higher rate, with 104% more shoppers sending recipe orders to baskets in the past two weeks compared to the same dates in 2019.

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