Why Hot Dogs Come in 10-Packs but Buns in 8

Have you ever ever purchased sizzling canine and buns for a cookout, solely to appreciate you’re both two buns quick or two wieners over? You’d suppose that, by now, the makers of America’s favorite ballpark snack would have solved this bizarre puzzle. Suppose once more. 

Now, this would possibly sound like a foolish dialog to have at a time when many of us are going through way more urgent issues. And also you’re proper—however hear me out as a result of generally fixing little mysteries provides us the braveness to unravel the larger ones. Child steps. Include me on this curious and historic journey to search out out why we are able to’t get our hot dog-to-bun ratio sorted. 

Earlier than about 1940, hot dogs have been purchased and bought from native butcher outlets and weren’t packaged as they’re at this time. Buyers would merely ask the butcher for the variety of sausages they wanted and can be charged by the pound. This brings us as much as modern-day meat packaging, whereby meat continues to be sometimes bought by the pound. One standard American hot dog is roughly 1.6 ounces. In the event you do the mathematics, which means it takes 10 sizzling canine to get you to at least one pound. It merely is smart, from a meat-packing and butchering perspective, to promote them by the pound, not by the piece. 

Equally, fashionable bakehouses are optimized for effectivity with requirements and programs set firmly in place. Buns are typically baked in clusters of 4 in pans designed to supply eight rolls apiece. It merely doesn’t make sense for many bakeries to utterly upend their manufacturing programs and pan designs to accommodate the common variety of hot dogs in a pack. 

The sunshine on the finish of the tunnel: In 2022, Heinz and Wonder Bread partnered to unravel this very concern in Canada by brokering a partnership to create 10-packs of buns. Possibly an analogous deal is on the horizon for america. Within the meantime, although, we Individuals will simply need to find a use for those two extra sausages.

My suggestion? Lower these suckers up and make a small batch of pigs in blankets for brunch the subsequent day. All people wins!