# What Does "Pig-in-a-Blanket" Mean to You? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738 "2010-02-12T17:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/61 "2010-02-13T00:11:37Z")
It depends on where I am: -If I’m at a breakfast joint, I’d expect sausages rolled in pancakes. -If I’m at a wedding reception or other catered party, I’d expect cocktail weiners in puff pastry. -If I’m at my dear, elderly Hungarian friend’s house, I would **not** expect beef and rice wrapped in cabbage and baked with a tomato sauce – those would be **cabbage rolls** , and I’ve heard her call them something like that galumpke word, but never pigs in a blanket. She’s originally from Ohio, and is only one generation removed from Hungary. -If I am in the cafeteria of the elementary school where I work, I’d expect a full-sized hot dog wrapped in a a heavy, icky dough which has been baked to a crisp on the outside while remaining sticky inside. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/62 "2010-02-13T00:11:59Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Polish Pittsburgher here. Stuffed cabbage was always called…stuffed cabbage. PiG is always a tiny, little sausage or finger-length tubular meat product wrapped in dough of some kind. I don’t think it’s called “Pig” because of the pork. I think it’s because it’s red/pink and tubular, like a pig. Interesting. Based on your profile, I’m older than you, so there may be a generational difference in addition to a possible Polish/Slovak difference. I have heard it called “stuffed cabbage” but both of the other names (halupkis, pigs-in-a-blanket) were more common in my neighborhood when I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/63 "2010-02-13T00:23:11Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > Interesting. Based on your profile, I’m older than you, so there may be a generational difference in addition to a possible Polish/Slovak difference. I have heard it called “stuffed cabbage” but both of the other names (halupkis, pigs-in-a-blanket) were more common in my neighborhood when I was growing up. My husband got the cabbage roll thing from his Albanian grandma. We ate “cabbage rolls”. Both of us are in our thirties. ---
**Author:** ![banjoDavid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@banjoDavid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/banjoDavid)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/64 "2010-02-13T00:42:54Z")
Breakfast sausage with a pancake wrapped around it While we’re on colorful food names, how about “Ants on a log” Celery filled with peanut butter and raisins stuck on the top ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/65 "2010-02-13T01:52:45Z")
Just remembered Little Home Bakery, a bakery/restaurant chain here in Bangkok. They offer pigs in a blanket: three sausages wrapped in a pancake. I _think_ it’s Filipino owned, as they offer some of that country’s dishes on the menu, about the only place in Thailand I’ve ever seen that. So maybe they have that in the Philippines, too? And if so, could it be an American import? ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/66 "2010-02-13T02:06:47Z")
Pigs-in-a-blankes are stuffed cabbage. Anything else is just weird. I’m in NW Ohio, and hadn’t ever heard of the sausage in a pancake thing. Porcupine balls, around here, are pretty much balls of the cabbage filling without the “blanket”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/67 "2010-02-13T02:09:13Z")
> [@Proudest\_Monkey](#): > > -If I’m at my dear, elderly Hungarian friend’s house, I would **not** expect beef and rice wrapped in cabbage and baked with a tomato sauce – those would be **cabbage rolls** , and I’ve heard her call them something like that galumpke word, but never pigs in a blanket. She’s originally from Ohio, and is only one generation removed from Hungary. In Hungarian, they’d be called _töltött káposzta_ (lit., “stuffed cabbage”), if that rings a bell. Anyhow, I always assumed the cabbage rolls were called “pigs in a blanket” because they were usually stuffed with ground pork and rice. My Polish family and even American friends here (Chicago) however knew them as _gołąbki_, usually pronounced as “golumpki” by the non-Polish speakers. To expand my post above, in my neighborhood I’ve only known pigs-in-blankets to mean the sausage in pancakes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/68 "2010-02-13T02:12:15Z")
I should also mention that I learned of the cabbage-roll “pigs in a blanket” from western-PA relatives, who in turn are not themselves Slavic, but probably learned of them from Slavic neighbors (mostly Croatian, I think). And there’s also a Ukranian grad student here who grew up in Youngstown, OH who also makes them, and calls them either by a Ukranian name I don’t remember, or “pigs in a blanket”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/69 "2010-02-13T02:13:50Z")
There’s a [Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigs_in_a_blanket) on pig-in-a-blanket, which is kind of interesting, including this note: > [@](#): > > In regions heavily influenced by Slovak immigrants, such as northern Pennsylvania, the term usually refers instead to stuffed cabbage rolls, such as the Polish or Ukrainian Gołąbki. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/70 "2010-02-13T02:43:28Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Where I grew up, the term refers to stuffed cabbage rolls. That’d be galubki to those of you who are [Hunky Culture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunky_Culture) mavens. > [@Who\_me\_1](#): > > This. > [@devilsknew](#): > > Pigs in the blanket are stuffed cabbage. Nothing else but. I grew up in western Pennsylvania and was served a steady diet of these. I’ve also heard them called cabbage rolls. Nothing else can be called “pig in a blanket.” I’ll just give you a blank look if you do. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/71 "2010-02-13T03:12:17Z")
Grew up in Maryland, now live in West Virginia; my heritage is mainly Irish/German. To me, growing up, ‘Pigs in a Blanket’ meant some kind of hot dogs in some kind of pastry; now that I’m a Mom, ‘Pigs in a Blanket’ means I get some kind of hot dogs (the cheap ones are fine), split them half-way open, stuff slivers of American cheese in the split, wrap them in Pillsbury (or store-brand) crescent rolls and bake them. But if it is on a ‘breakfast menu’, I assume it’s sausage links wrapped in pancakes. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/72 "2010-02-13T03:40:39Z")
I selected “A hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll”, although like several others here my mother made them with canned biscuit dough. And never with a full-size hot dog, always the small ones. They’re a kind of finger food. I think I have seen them made with crescent rolls, though. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the term used to describe any of the other food items described in the poll. ETA: Oh, I grew up in the Southeast and my mother is from Texas. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/73 "2010-02-13T04:37:34Z")
What we called PIAB is also known as Vomachka, Bohemian round steak rolls [http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1726,149168-250197,00.html](http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1726,149168-250197,00.html). (My mother also made cabbage rolls, which among Poles is always called [gołąbki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go%C5%82%C4%85bki).) ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/74 "2010-02-13T10:24:33Z")
> [@shellofmyformerself](#): > > A little smokie wrapped in half a crescent roll… This. Hot dogs, indeed.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/75 "2010-02-14T00:41:23Z")
Mini hotdog thingie in a dough roll. I don’t know if that’s what you mean by crescent rool. Only kosher pigs you’ll ever find. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/76 "2010-02-14T01:41:31Z")
Man, you guys are bringing back fond memories. My family’s version of Pigs in a Blanet are hotdogs almost split in two lengthwise, with a slice of cheese in the slit. They’d be wrapped in a pre-rectangle of biscuit dough made from Bisquick, AND ours would have a slice of bacon wrapped around the package and secured with a toothpick. We’ make several dozen of these at a time so that our family of nine (two parents, seven kids) would get about 2 each plus salad to eat at dinner. Of course, we had no idea about saturated fats, simple carbs, sodium, etc., those pigs in a blanket were bacon grease soaked packages of goodness. ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/77 "2010-02-14T02:24:03Z")
Ground meat and rice inside some cabbage with tomato sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/78 "2010-02-14T02:27:51Z")
I chose option one but it was actually Vienna sausages or Lil Smokies and the biscuit dough in a tube flattened out and usually with a slice of cheese. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/79 "2010-02-14T02:45:30Z")
Meat coated with truffle pate and duxelles, wrapped up in pate brisee or puff pastry. Oh, wait, that’s Beef Wellington. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/80 "2010-02-14T03:10:10Z")
“Hot dog in a crescent roll”? As a 42 year old American I have never once encountered or heard of such. Sausage links in a pancake is the only way I’ve seen it used. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738.md?page=5)