As we head into a "cookout" holiday with Labor Day Weekend staring us in the face let's address a question that many of you have been asking since you were old enough to ask. That question is simply this. "Why are hot dogs sold in packs of ten and hot dog buns sold in packs of eight"?.

hoto by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
hoto by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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It would seem that economics and economies of scale would have those in the hot dog and bun manufacturing segment of our society working together to create a synergistic product that did not allow for waste, but alas. despite the current technology the marketplace hasn't deemed such a change necessary.

If you ask the National Hot Dog Sausage Council, yes that really is an organization, they seem to place the reason for the conundrum on the baking industry. A quote from the NHDSC as reported by UNILAD suggested that,

While baking pans now come in configurations that allow baking 10 and even 12 at a time, the eight-roll pan remains the most popular.

David Paul Morris/Getty Images
David Paul Morris/Getty Images
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So basically, the bakers have the technology to bake ten packs of buns or rolls, they just choose not to bake them. Or maybe this is one of those, if we add two more rolls to the package then the price will change and then consumers will complain about the cost of buns going up.

Food Giants Kraft And Heinz To Merge
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Meanwhile, the folks at Heinz Ketchup, since they no longer have a football stadium to worry about in Pittsburgh, actually have tried to bring the bun side and the weenie side together. They even launched a campaign to force equality among buns and dogs by virtue of a "Petition for a Change". This actually took place in Canada in July of last year and it garnered a lot of support.

The petition captured over 34,000 signatures but that wasn't enough to make "big hot dog" or "big bun" notice. Okay, the move did work in certain parts of Canada but that's about it. The rest of us are still dealing with two extra buns at the end of a pack of hot dogs.

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
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So, what do you do with your extra hot dog buns? I usually just turn mine into garlic toast. That seems to work well with most hot dog fixings and snacks. At least the bread doesn't go to waste, and no wrapping it up and saving it for the next time we have hot dogs is the plastic bag equivalent of storing food in Tupperware in the fridge. You're just delaying the day you throw it away.

Or you could buy five packs of buns and four packs of weenies and then you'd have a perfect matching number. You'd also have forty hot dogs to eat which might prevent yet another troubling dilemma. We'll let you figure it out while we go make gumbo.

10 Commandments of Gumbo

 

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