National pancake week: Each state’s favorite pancake topping
Whether your preference is plain, drenched in butter, or topped with fruit - there’s one thing Americans can all agree on, pancakes are worth celebrating!
To celebrate National Pancake Week (February 19th - February 25th) and National Pancake Day (February 28th) and to celebrate, we conducted a nationwide survey of over 1,500 Americans to find out what each state’s favorite pancake toppings are! (Bar the obvious, maple syrup).
Here’s what we found:
Butter has the nation’s hearts, as it was 27 states #1 pancake topping
In second place, 7 states opted for the healthier option of strawberries
Mississippi indulged in pancakes the most, at an average of 7 times per month!
Flippin’ Fantastic: A pancake topping tour of the USA
The smell of fresh fluffy pancakes cooking, sizzling bacon or golden melted butter - name a better wake up call?! We’ll wait. Thankfully there’s a whole day (or two, in America's case) for celebrating our beloved pancake stacks. But it’s 2024, and we’re somewhat *creative* with our food preferences - which means the topping options are endless. Let’s get to the bottom of it as we reveal which is the most popular topping across the U.S.
Butter was the favorite pancake topping for Americans this pancake day, which 27 states agreed on. Simple but effective some would say! In second place we have strawberries, with 7 states opting for this healthier pancake topping. Finishing off the top three is chocolate chips, the sweet-toothed amongst us voted this was the best pancake topping, as agreed by 5 states, including; New Hampshire, North Dakota and Arizona - to name a few.
For some states, the array of pancake toppings made it harder to choose just one. South Carolina had a sweet showdown of choices, with chocolate chips, pecans/nuts and whipped cream battling for pancake supremacy. Similarly, in the land of Utah, residents found themselves in a tasty tangle, as they opted for 3 different options - chocolate chips, peanut butter and fruit.
But hold onto your frying pans, because the likes of Kansas, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wyoming decided to go lone ranger, flipping tradition on its head. These states didn’t choose to follow the crowd, as they opted to top their pancakes with; peanut butter, chocolate syrup and bacon respectively.
Stacking up the stats: How often each state indulges in pancakes per month
We’ve established that Americans are pancake lovers, but who are the most pancake obsessed states? Well, we’ve taken an average across the respondents to find out how many times a month each state consumes pancakes. The biggest pancake fanatics are the Magnola state, Mississippi, who on average eat pancakes 7 times a month! We can get down with that. Not too far behind them is Utah, 5 times a month - we can’t say we’re surprised when they have that many favorite toppings to choose from. In joint place with Utah was strawb-loving West Virginia, who also consumed pancakes at least once a week (5 times a month).
Summary
Whilst the nation may be split by their favorite pancake toppings, one thing we can all agree on is our love of a pancake stack. So grab that frying pan and your toppings of choice (we won’t judge - promise!) and get yourself ready for the 13th. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Methodology
We surveyed over 1,500 U.S. residents about their pancake topping preferences. We decided to choose the second favorite topping for every state and exclude maple syrup, which inevitably came out on top.
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