Georgia's Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dish Is ...

Sure, Turkey gets all the love on the Thanksgiving Day table. But, for many of us, it's the side dishes during that holiday feast that steal the show.

Dressing — or stuffing, if you prefer — and gravy. Pies and cakes. Casseroles and breads. Each one is probably somebody at your holiday gathering's favorite. But, in Georgia, one dish is apparently on more people's minds than all the others.

In Georgia, we love our sweet potato casserole.

That's according to a new state-by-state list by General Mills, which pulled search data from the websites of its food properties like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury and others.

A plant native to Central and South America that's been domesticated for the past 5,000 years or so, the sweet potato has been a staple of the Southern diet since the United States was founded. But the sweet potato casserole's history is a good bit shorter — and appears to have had the shrewd hand of marketing involved.

An article on food website Saveur reports that, in 1917, marketers at Angelus Marshmallows hired chef and writer Janet McKenzie Hill to develop recipes for a booklet that — surprise, surprise — encouraged cooks to use marshmallows.

Along with another classic, hot cocoa dotted with marshmallows, it included the first documented appearance of sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping, Saveur reports.

The dish actually caught on with Northerners first, according to the article, but in the years since have accepted marshmallows as an acceptable topping for our sweet potatoes.

The list of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes by state include both some classics and some surprises. Sure, South Dakota loves pumpkin pie, Oklahoma likes its pumpkin pie and Illinois is all about mashed potatoes. But some of the other most popular searches? Wow.

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Sausage balls topped the list for Alabama. West Virginians are curious about buffalo chicken dip at Thanksgiving time, apparently and it appears folks in Michigan are hankering for chili on Turkey Day.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving side dish, Georgians? Let us know on social media or in the comments section.

The search results, published by The Daily Meal, were pulled from sites including BettyCrocker.com and Pillsbury.com.

Here's a look at the top search by state:

• Alabama: Sausage balls
• Alaska: Cinnamon rolls
• Arizona: Shrimp
• Arkansas: Chicken and dumplings
• California: Macaroni and cheese
• Colorado: Cranberry sauce
• Connecticut: Butternut squash soup
• Delaware: Sweet potato casserole
• Florida: Pumpkin cheesecake
• Georgia: Sweet potato casserole
• Hawaii: Crescent rolls
• Idaho: Biscuits
• Illinois: Mashed Potatoes
• Indiana: Peanut butter cookies
• Iowa: Monkey bread
• Kansas: Pinwheels
• Kentucky: Chicken and dumplings
• Louisiana: Cornbread dressing
• Maine: Chicken pot pie
• Maryland: Crab cake
• Massachusetts: Cheesecake
• Michigan: Chili
• Minnesota: Green bean casserole
• Mississippi: Chicken spaghetti
• Missouri: Breakfast casserole
• Montana: Oven-roasted vegetables
• Nebraska: Monkey bread
• Nevada: Peanut butter cookies
• New Hampshire: Blueberry pie
• New Jersey: Crab cake
• New Mexico: Pecan pie
• New York: Cheesecake
• North Carolina: Sweet potato pie
• North Dakota: Apple crisp
• Ohio: Buffalo chicken dip
• Oklahoma: Pecan pie
• Oregon: Bread stuffing
• Pennsylvania: Buffalo chicken dip
• Rhode Island: Monkey bread
• South Carolina: Sweet potato pie
• South Dakota: Pumpkin pie
• Tennessee: Sausage balls
• Texas: Chicken spaghetti
• Utah: Crescent rolls
• Vermont: Butternut squash soup
• Virginia: Macaroni and cheese
• Washington: Sugar cookies
• West Virginia: Buffalo chicken dip
• Wisconsin: Shrimp
• Wyoming: Pork chop

Photo via Shutterstock