Tiny pigs in a blanket baked in a springform pan make a fun pull apart appetizer.
I never met a hot dog I didn’t like. This is probably driven by a number of factors, such as my German heritage and fondness for most sausages. Also, hot dogs have pleasant memory triggers for me, including attending baseball games with family and friends, picnics, backyard barbecues, especially those enjoyed as a child.
It’s also a belief of mine that food doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Once in a while it’s fine to make something that’s just a bit naughty or silly. So, for National Pigs in a Blanket Day (April 24)—or any day you need a fun dish most people will like—this recipe works beautifully.
Earlier this year, my Banana and Chocolate Chip Monkey Bread (https://www.threewomeninthekitchen.com/post/banana-chocolate-chip-monkey-bread)
received some love on social media. These Pull Apart Piggies stand tiny pigs-in-a-blanket on their heads and bake similar to in pull apart bread inside a springform pan. Pick the bread apart, dip in the tangy sauce, and have a good time.
This would be an ideal dish for an upcoming backyard get together, a game day, movie night at home—well, you get the idea.
And the idea of baking meat wrapped in dough crosses cultural lines. Remember our friend Diane Carson’s British Sausage Rolls recipe she shared with us for the holidays?
These tasty bites wrap pork sausage in puff pastry.
Recipes for pigs-in-a-blanket go back to the early 1900s, although the dish was popularized in 1957 when it appeared in a Betty Crocker cookbook.
It looks like Betty and I aren’t the only ones who dig dogs. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC), Americans spent over $7 billion at supermarkets for hot dogs last year.
Who invented hot dogs? A German butcher, of course! What was surprising was Johann Georghehner of Coburg, Germany, created the “dachshund” or “little dog sausage” in the late 1600s.
Some folks, however, prefer not to consume hot dogs or other sausages because they are skeptical about how these meat products are made. Plenty of jokes and myths are out there. But the NHDSC notes that it’s very rare in the U.S. for hot dogs to contain organ meats, labeled as “variety meats.” Beef hot dogs utilize selected meat trimmings from roasts or steaks. Most commercial hot dogs are not sold in casings, although a small percentage using traditional casings made of intestines are sold often at the deli.
For more info, check out https://www.hot-dog.org/culture/how-hot-dogs-are-made.
For the Pull Apart Piggies, you can use a package of all-beef hot dogs (or pork or poultry, your call) and cut into 32 pieces, or you can use a package of cocktail wieners. I used the latter option. Vegetarians could probably wrap up plant-based “hot dogs,” although I’ve never tried these.
The little pigs-in-a-blanket were cute and fun to eat, but honestly, the star is the dipping sauce. I’d dip my sneakers in this sauce and take a bite (well, a slight exaggeration, but the sauce is darn good).
I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. It would be a fun dish to get the kids or grandkids involved in, too.