Daily Meal Survey: The Pie Shortcut Showing Up On Most Thanksgiving Tables This Year

When you think of taking shortcuts around Thanksgiving, there is usually a motive behind the desired convenience: maybe you need to save time in the kitchen while juggling seven different dishes at once, or perhaps you're taking the easier route to save money. According to NielsenIQ, 93% of Americans plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, and many are opting to take shortcuts on the big day due to rising costs.

Even if the November holiday this year will look slightly different for some, Martha Stewart outlines how pie has become and remains the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert. This was only confirmed in 2019 when a poll conducted by Harris of 2,000 participants via Bake claimed 93% of Americans eat pie on Thanksgiving Day.

This year, however, people are adjusting their yearly rituals when it comes to America's favorite holiday dessert. Considering the standard ingredients you need to make a classic pie crust, just one cup of butter, if following the process by MasterClass, makes two layers of crust which can cost a pretty penny if you plan on making multiple pies. Before you make a trip to the nearest grocery store to stock up on homemade pumpkin pie recipe ingredients, you may be interested to know what shortcuts Americans are relying on the most this holiday season when it comes to their essential post-dinner treat.

The Daily Meal surveyed 622 Americans on the shortcuts they'll be taking to make essential Thanksgiving pies and 24.92% of respondents are actually planning to buy their dessert from local bakeries. Purchasing cheaper pre-made varieties in the frozen section of the supermarket, meanwhile, garnered 18.65% of poll responses.

Outsourcing this year's dessert may or may not prove cheaper in some regard given the price increases of store-bought butter as of late (per CNBC Make It). Yet in 2021, Good Morning America urged consumers to support local bakeries as a means of helping businesses that endured financial loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the second most popular timesaver, 24.76% of participants planned on purchasing store-bought pie crust. Among the many "dos and dont's" of holiday shortcuts listed by Cook's Illustrated, purchasing store-bought crust is something most at-home chefs can get away with at the holiday table. Concerning the last two shortcuts, 20.74% of poll takers claimed they'll be asking a dinner guest to bring dessert and only 10.93% are planning to buy pie filling. Even though a recent survey by Finance Buzz found that 86% of Americans plan to adjust their Thanksgiving meal due to price increases, cost is not the only reason Americans are taking shortcuts on this year's Thanksgiving dessert. After all, Thanksgiving is about being with friends and family: any convenience that helps you achieve a streamlined holiday dinner with more family time is worth it.