How We Cooked at Home During the Pandemic

2020 was a record year for home-cooking, and the Meredith title Allrecipes has the receipts to prove it. The food media publication uses sophisticated data analytics to track changes in how and for what its readers, whom it calls cooks, are shopping and preparing in their home kitchens. Now, with the pandemic slowly receding in the U.S., a clearer picture of how American home cooks fed themselves during the pandemic has begun to emerge. The biggest trend: far more people cooked than ever before. Traffic to the Allrecipes website in 2020 surged 20% year-over-year, from an average of 42 million unique monthly visitors to 51 million, according to publisher data from Comscore. The total number of average pageviews soared as well, rising 51%, from 165 million per month to 249 million. Total annual pageviews rose from 1.9 billion to 2.9 billion. Allrecipes monetizes these views through a mix of targeted advertisements and native integrations, such as suggesting a specific brand of barbecue sauce in the ingredients list for a recipe. The publisher declined to share its total revenue, but windfall traffic almost certainly corresponded with a banner financial year. Across the board, every metric Allrecipes tracks ballooned, including total visits, total minutes, pageviews per visit and views per unique visitor, which rose 30%, 39%, 25% and 8%, respectively. In total, Allrecipes users spent more than 3.3 billion minutes on the site in 2020. "There have been so many stressors over the past year, with social issues, the economy and COVID," said Esmee Williams, a consumer and brand strategist for Allrecipes. "People have really turned inward as a result, and cooking is a part of that process." These numbers will almost certainly drop to some degree, but an overall increased interest in cooking will likely persist post-pandemic. More than 70% of Americans said they plan to continue cooking from home even when (some degree of) normalcy returns, according to a January survey from the market research firm Hunter. Below are the major trends the Allrecipes team saw unfold in its users as the pandemic forced home cooks into their kitchens in unprecedented numbers. Phase 1: Creative replacements In the early days of the pandemic, concerned shoppers flocked to grocery markets in search of shelf-stable goods and tried to adjust when stores ran out of key ingredients. As a result, recipes that helped shoppers figure out what to buy and how to substitute ingredients rose in popularity, such as “How to Stock Your Pantry for an Emergency” and “Simple Swaps for When You Run Out of Common Ingredients.” Home cooks also needed recipes that relied on pantry staples and meals that responded to the availability of specific ingredients. In short order, articles like “24 Recipes that Start with Canned Tuna,” “Recipes that Start with Frozen Vegetables” and “How to Use Bisquick for Easy Cooking” began driving traffic. Phase 2: New cooks and nostalgia In the second era of pandemic cooking, Allrecipes users began leaning into their new circumstances. Many started cooking for the first time, leading to a surge in recipes like “Goof-Proof Recipes That Help You Learn How to Cook,” “Easy Dinners for Beginners” and “Best Mexican Recipes for Beginner Cooks.” Several popular food trends also found their way into Allrecipes’ data, when recipes such as “How to Decorate Focaccia Bread Like a Work of Edible Art” and “How to Use Up Sourdough Starter Discards” began trending. To cope with social distancing, home cooks sought out recipes that helped them indulge in nostalgia and recreate dishes from some of the restaurants they missed. Soon, articles such as “Copycat Olive Garden Recipes to Make a Home,” “Grandma’s Favorite Comfort Food Recipes” and “The Most Popular Recipes of the 1960s” began circulating in above-average numbers. Finally, during this time, home cooks also began to realize their holiday meals would have to look different. Recipes that offered new angles on festive favorites became in-demand, such as “30 Easter Ideas that Aren’t Ham,” “How to Scale Down Thanksgiving for a Smaller Crowd” and “How to Have a Meaningful Virtual Passover Seder.” Phase 3: Affordable inspiration to stem burn out After months of social distancing and making the best of their newfound cooking prowess, many cooks began burning out, prompting an increase in interest in easy, affordable and novel dishes. In search of mealtime inspiration, cooks began favoriting recipes like “Slammin’ Things to Do with Spam,” “Deliciously Different Things to Do with a Pound of Ground Beef” and “Lunches for the Whole Family At Home.” As the economy waxed and waned, affordable dishes became a priority, especially as months of home-cooking began to exact a toll on household budgets. Affordable dishes like “Budget Friendly Dinners for Beginner Cooks,” “Illinois Mom Feeds Her Family of 6 On $130 a Week—Here’s How” and “14 Nights of Dinner Ideas All Under $2 Per Serving” rose in visibility. Finally, many exhausted home cooks sought out low-effort solutions, eschewing multi-step or process-oriented recipes in place of easier options. Pages like “Top Chicken Breast Dinners that Use 5 Ingredients or Less,” “12 No-Maintenance Dump Dinners” and “Easy Dinners You Only Need 3 Ingredients to Make” ballooned in usage. While even the most avid home cook is likely happy to see lockdowns ending, the new habits they have formed could have a long-lasting impact on the world of dining. "People that began cooking during the pandemic have gained confidence. They realized it's not nearly as hard as they thought it would be," Williams said. "Plus, it brings them joy, and it's something that they can control." Cooking More at Home Is Bringing People Joy. That’s Good News for CPG Companies

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How We Cooked at Home During the Pandemic, According to Allrecipes

A historic year for home-cooking, in review

Mark Stenberg

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