That about says it. You buy a bag of hot dog buns, and they are all in one big clump… you have to sort of tear them apart. Yet… they are sliced! how can they do this?
When the slice them in the bun factory, they (like a teasing cheerleader) don’t go all the way. The blade only drops partly into the dough.
Not dough, but bread. The slicing is done after the dough is baked into bread.
But you’re right; the slicing is only done partway.
Well, I guess I was a little too eager to get that cheerleader metaphor in.
Not to sound flippant, but I think our OP is aware that the buns are sliced at the factory, and not all the way through, since they come out of the package that way. The mystery here is how they manage to get a clean slice when the long edges of the middle buns are covered by other partially sliced buns.
The buns are stuck together, 4 in a row, because they’re baked while touching, but the middle buns have slices through them too, even though the only open area is the end of the bun. Do they have special knives that can go in through the end of the bun, and slice it cleanly? Seems like a hard thing to do.
Not if the “knife” goes through from the end.
I have a good friend who works the midnight shift at aour local Wonder bread factory, when he’s awake I’ll give him a call him.
This comes up periodically. Check the links in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=255062&highlight=slicer
I spoke with a coworker who used to work in a bakery. She said that if you take a knife coated in oil, you can slice the unbaked dough. Once baked, the oiled surfaces will not bake together. So, in some cases, they might slice the unbaked hotdog buns, and then bake them four to a pan.