Mystery Solved: Why Hot Dogs Come in Packages of Ten and Buns in Eight

Why do hot dogs come in packages of eight, but hot dog buns come in packages of ten? The age-old mystery has been solved!

It’s that time of year when folks will be firing up their grill for cookouts with friends and family, especially with the 4th of July being this week. One of the most popular foods that people make is hot dogs. The hot dogs being made at the July 4th BBQ are almost always straight from the grill to the hot dog bun. Pretty basic, really. Once you have your hot dog, you can choose from whatever condiments are available, and off you go. Personally, I prefer a hot dog with some chili and cheese on top of it. I could eat those all day. No matter how you like to eat them, there’s always one problem. The hot dog to bun ratio never adds up. You always wind up a couple of buns short.

That’s because hot dogs are sold in packages of ten, while the buns are sold in packages of eight. It’s one of life’s biggest mysteries. You can’t make a whole package of hot dogs without buying two packages of hot dog buns. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you think about it. So, what’s the reason behind the mismatch? Well, I think we have the answer for you.

Why Hot Dogs Come in Packages of Ten?

According to allrecipes.com, prior to 1940, hot dogs weren’t packaged the way they are now. Folks would go to their local butcher and buy hot dogs by the pound.

This brings us up to modern-day meat packaging, wherein meat is still typically sold by the pound. One standard American hot dog is approximately 1.6 ounces. If you do the math, that means that it takes 10 hot dogs to get you to one pound. It simply makes sense, from a meat-packing and butchering perspective, to sell them by the pound, not by the piece.

Now that I understand. All meat is typically sold by the pound. So, if one package of ten hot dogs is about a pound a piece, why aren’t manufacturers of hot dog buns selling their products to equal out the hot dog to bun ratio?

Why are Hot Dog Buns Sold in Packages of Eight?

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Essentially, bakeries either can’t or won’t change the standards and procedures they use to bake buns. Here’s what allrecipes.com says:

Similarly, modern bakehouses are optimized for efficiency with standards and systems set firmly in place. Buns are typically baked in clusters of four in pans designed to produce eight rolls apiece. It simply doesn’t make sense for most bakeries to completely upend their production systems and pan designs to accommodate the average number of hot dogs in a pack.

Alright…

You mean to tell me that we have the means and technology to send a man to the moon, create self-driving vehicles, and artificial intelligence, but we can’t figure out a way to bake hot dog buns in clusters of five? Clearly, this is above my pay grade, but it doesn’t make sense to me.

That being said, if we can’t change the way that machines are set up in bakeries, wouldn’t it make sense for hot dog producers to make each hot dog bigger and sell them in packages of eight? That way, each package will still weigh roughly a pound, just two fewer hot dogs. I don’t know, but it’s 2025. There should have already been a solution to this problem by now!

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