# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/81 "2010-02-14T03:13:58Z")
An undercover cop ---
**Author:** ![Omgalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/41988e/32.png) [@Omgalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omgalion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/82 "2010-02-14T03:17:47Z")
The only form of pig in a blanket I’m familiar with is a prune wrapped in bacon. Which is kind of a misnomer, because in that recipe the pig _is_ the blanket. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/83 "2010-02-14T03:41:08Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > where are the cabbage roll people from? in virginia it’s weenies in puff pastry We call it [Gołąbki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golumpki) (pronounced GLOOMPkee). Pigs in the blanket to everyone but the old folks. We’re from Pittsburgh. It was made by both my grandmothers (Polish and Slovak). It’s cabbage leaves wrapped around ground beef or pork mixed with rice, cooked in the oven. There’s a red sauce made from the meat juice and a little tomato sauce. Always served with mashed potatoes (that you can pour the red sauce on). ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/84 "2010-02-14T03:47:54Z")
> [@BigBertha](#): > > Ground meat and rice inside some cabbage with tomato sauce. This. NW Indiana of Lithuanian descent (on mom’s side. Dad’s english and refused to eat them.) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/85 "2010-02-14T04:15:01Z")
Is it the same thing as a [sleeping policeman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_policeman)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/86 "2010-02-14T04:39:33Z")
I think of cocktail sausage or pieces of hot dogs wrapped in any sort of biscuit, crescent roll, or cheese scone dough. Whole hot dogs are too big to be pigs in a blanket. ---
**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, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/87 "2010-02-14T05:09:15Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > where are the cabbage roll people from? Same place as the pod people, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Wisp00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/88 "2010-02-14T05:18:03Z")
It’s a smokey link wrapped in a crescent roll ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/89 "2010-02-14T06:01:33Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > In the UK, it’s a sausage wrapped in bacon - often served as one of the side dishes for Christmas dinner. My parents are poms and that was what I knew as _pigs in a blanket_, sausages with pastry were _toad in the hole_. When I was young and worked as a laborer on a building site there were mainly Czechs, Croatians and other eastern Europeans working with me. They enjoyed giving the young Aussie food because I loved it and most of the older guys used to complain about the smells. One of the best things was _Sarma_ which was the stuffed cabbage rolls they called _pig in the blanket_. Every guy who brought them had a different version of essentially the same dish and I gave them all my approval. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/90 "2010-02-14T06:27:32Z")
Halupki (aka cabbage roll) - which goes well with halushki and perohi to make a basic ethnic sampler. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/91 "2010-02-14T06:39:48Z")
Within American cuisine, I’m pretty sure I can date the slavic “pigs in the blanket” (Cabbage, beef, ground pork sausage, rice, and tomates) to before the seemingly most common standard of the flaky crescent or dough wrapped sausage ‘pig in the blanket’ … I think Pillsbury Plagiarized. I have however heard of the Pancake and sausage combo as pigs in the blanket, and I definitely believe that predates the Pillsbury recipe. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/92 "2010-02-14T06:50:36Z")
A hot dog . . . usually a small one, like a cocktail frank . . . wrapped in some kind of dough. I didn’t know it had any other meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/93 "2010-02-14T21:26:16Z")
Hot dog wrapped in either a crescent roll if you’re fancy, or a piece of Wonder Bread if you’re not. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/94 "2010-02-14T21:41:52Z")
FTR, often I hear the stuffed cabbage rolls called “pigs-inna-blanket” and most frequently as just plain " pigs." ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/95 "2010-02-14T23:43:36Z")
Sausage wrapped in a pancake but Fifille says it’s cocktail weenies wrapped in puff pastry. She’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/96 "2010-02-15T00:19:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I voted for #1, even though in my experience “pigs in blankets” consist of either regulation size hot dogs or little smokies wrapped in biscuit dough. When I was a kid, the public schools made 'em with full-size wieners heh heh wrapped in some kind of dough. When my mom made them, she usually used those “little smokies” or similar small-size weenies, baked in those biscuits that come in a refrigerated can that she was scared to open herself because they kind of exploded when they popped open. This. And another vote for porcupine balls just being rice in meatballs. Grew up outside Chicago in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/97 "2010-02-18T11:23:00Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I posted a Facebook status that stated Mrs. Homie and I were having pigs-in-a-blanket, reminiscent of our elementary school lunches. My friends (from different parts of the country, I hasten to add) all professed shock that we were having what they thought was pig-in-a-blanket for lunch. > > So what does the term mean to you? A sausage wrapped in a rasher of bacon. Usually eaten at Christmas with the turkey. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/98 "2010-02-18T11:56:34Z")
Your options are close, but not quite right. Pigs in a blanket refers exclusively to a finger food: [little cocktail sausages wrapped in dough](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u91Rmascp2o/R207jyyylvI/AAAAAAAABlU/0JbI96u_PS0/s400/pig5.jpg) from a can, whether crescent roll or biscuit. If the latter the biscuits are put on thinner and somehow not let rise as much, and come out white yet not doughy. There is a breakfast variety, but it definitely does not involve pancakes. You just use half a breakfast sausage and the canned dough. And it must be explicitly specified that these are “breakfast pigs in a blanket”. Otherwise it’s the cocktail weenies, even at breakfast. There’s also a “Chinese” variety that means bacon wrapped around pieces of hot dog. (Probably because we first saw them at a Chinese restaurant) Finally, in the plural it can also refer to a bunch of toddlers or young kids wrapped in fairly large parkas to the point where you wouldn’t expect them to be able to move, but, somehow, they are still able to move around like “pigs in a blanket”. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/99 "2010-04-15T06:44:59Z")
I just heard the Chicago Bundys on [Married with Children](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married_with_children) call the pig in a blanket (crescent roll/lil smokies) a “Weenie Tot”. I think it’s one of Al’s favorite dishes. That episode appeared to be from the early nineties. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738/100 "2010-04-15T07:02:33Z")
I voted “sausage in a pancake,” completely confident that the other responses would have teeny tiny amounts of voters. But then I saw the results. WOW. I have NEVER heard a pig-in-a-blanket to mean anything other than a sausage in a pancake. This is all new to me. And apparently -I- am in the minority? Wow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pig-in-a-blanket-mean-to-you/528738.md?page=6)