iStockphoto / Liudmila Chernetska
Hot dogs are most often sold in packs of 10. Hot dog buns are typically sold in packs of 8, 10, or 12 with 12 being the most commonly sold configuration.
Anyone who has ever purchased both, which is everyone in America, has wondered why on God’s green earth they are not sold in the same quantities. The industry has the ability to standardize these numbers and despite what the rest of the world might think about us as Americans, it’s surely not about intentional food waste. As it turns out, there’s a very simple answer.
Why Hot Dogs And Hot Dog Buns Are Sold In Different Quantities
A story has been making the rounds today which quotes the official explanation from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) on why hot dogs and buns are sold in different quantities. The short version is that baking pans used to make hot dog buns used to be a standard configuration and that was that.
Here is the official explanation from the NHDSC:
When hot dog buns were introduced, hot dogs were sold in varying quantities at the butcher shop. Not until 1940 were hot dogs packaged the way we currently see them in the grocery store. When manufacturers began packaging hot dogs, they chose the 10 to the pack formula. Today hot dogs are sold most often in eight or ten to the pound packs, but some are sold other quantities as well.
Sandwich rolls, or hot dog buns, most often come eight to the pack because the buns are baked in clusters of four in pans designed to hold eight rolls. 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.
However, to save you from the bread aisle arithmetic anxiety, you need to purchase five bags of eight-to-the-pack buns and four 10-to-the-pack hot dogs to break even.
I’ve seen this story picked up today by the NY Post, Barstool Sports, and others. It’s incredible really that this is a question plaguing hundreds of millions of Americans for decades, since hot dogs started being packaged in 1940, and the true answer isn’t something that every red blooded American can rattle off at any moment.
How has this simple piece of knowledge evaded us as a society for so long?! Well, now we know.
Side note, we interviewed Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi before their epic hot dog eating contest last weekend in Las Vegas. Check that out!