Pigs in Blankets - the ultimate in hors d'oeuvres

I guess I'm not the only person who loves these: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/dining/30pigs.html
In fact, I've had many a cocktail party where I served pigs in blankets with much fancier and impressive hors d'oeuvres, but the pigs were always the first to go.

Yup, we do a couple hundred at our annual xmas cocktail party. As the kids have gotten older, we've been able to feed more of them to the adults.

I strongly recommend finding Vienna or Best's kosher mini-dogs, and wrapping them rectangles cut from Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (yields about six or eight per two-triangle piece of dough, or 18-24 per package).

Paulina Market has fabulous mini-dogs that make great PIB, with crescent roll dough. We made them for our daughters first birthday last year and they were the first thing eaten quickly by kids and adults.
LO

I like frozen puff pastry dough for my piggies in blankets... not traditional, I know, but I find the exploding tubes of dough a bit startling. I always turn my head away when I open them, as if something was going come flying and poke my eye out.

grace

Where can you find the Vienna Beef mini-dogs besides the factory store on Damen? Dominicks on Clybourn used to have them but, I think, discontinued them as I don't see them anymore. I've never seen them at a Jewel, ever.

aschie30 wrote:Where can you find the Vienna Beef mini-dogs besides the factory store on Damen?

Kosher minis have been harder to find in recent years, especially since the Best's outlets have disappeared -- they'd sell me bags by the pound.

Sunset Foods in Northbrook had two brands of Kosher mini dogs last year. I've seen them in Whole Paycheck^h^h^h^h^h^h^hFoods, but not Jewel or Dominick's.

See, The Wife and I went around and around about this last weekend.

She contended that Pigs in a Blanket were wieners wrapped in dough.

I contended they were ground meat wrapped in cabbage leaves.

I just Googled "pigs in a blanket" and the first receipe on the first hit I got was for ground meat wrapped in cabbage leaves: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1626,139189-247197,00.html

It would seem that the name "Pigs in a Blanket" refers to two different dishes.

Hammond

aschie30 wrote:Where can you find the Vienna Beef mini-dogs besides the factory store on Damen?

Aschie,

I bought a few bags at the factory store on Friday, I plan on wrapping in pastry dough, little dab of mustard and a bit of cheddar cheese.

Far as other sources, I was just at Marketplace on Oakton, no Vienna mini-dogs to be found. I remember seeing mini-dogs at Jewel, but they were small smokey links and not Vienna.

What I've done in the past, though, to say the least, I don't make these often, is use a good quality hot dog or polish sausage cut to size.

Enjoy,
Gary

And in my family, pigs in a blanket has always meant breakfast sausage wrapped in pancakes.

Treasure Island on Clybourn sells both the Vienna minis and Boar's Head kosher minis in a natural (sheep) casing. The BH ones are actually cheaper, for whatever reason.

aschie30 wrote:Where can you find the Vienna Beef mini-dogs besides the factory store on Damen? Dominicks on Clybourn used to have them but, I think, discontinued them as I don't see them anymore. I've never seen them at a Jewel, ever.

Here's a link that might be helpful: http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=6031

LTH,

Sparked up a few Pigs in a Blanket. Pigs were from Romanian Kosher, blanket was puff pastry dough, the store bought frozen kind, not made from scratch. Bit of cheese, stripe of Koops horseradish mustard, egg wash so they look pretty.



Not bad, not bad at all, though I just might prefer the explosive tubes of crescent rolls to puff pastry and Vienna to the Romanian Kosher doggies.



Not surprisingly, Pigs in a Blanket go well with champagne, in this case a Regis Fliniaux rose.



In my best Homer Simpson voice, Mmmmm........Pigs in a Blanket

Enjoy,
Gary

Oooh, you just gave me the great idea to make little tiny sausages (in the sheep casings) to make truly homemade pigs in blankets! Think of a whole variety of flavors for a fancy party in homemade puff pastry (yes a ton of work, but well worth it).
I'm about to go dig out my Charcuterie cookbook right now....
BTW--I loved that NYT article too.

David Hammond wrote:See, The Wife and I went around and around about this last weekend.

She contended that Pigs in a Blanket were wieners wrapped in dough.

I contended they were ground meat wrapped in cabbage leaves.

I just Googled "pigs in a blanket" and the first receipe on the first hit I got was for ground meat wrapped in cabbage leaves: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1626,139189-247197,00.html

It would seem that the name "Pigs in a Blanket" refers to two different dishes.

Hammond

the only pigs in a blanket I ever knew was the cabbage/ground beef combo

Octarine wrote:And in my family, pigs in a blanket has always meant breakfast sausage wrapped in pancakes.

Ditto here. Actually, it wasn't my family, since they didn't speak much English around the house when I was growing up, so I must've picked it up from one of my classmates or a diner menu or something. I have heard the hot-dogs-in-puff-pastry referred to as pigs in a blanket, of course, but never the stuffed cabbage. I've always just called those stuffed cabbage, cabbage rolls, or gołąbki.

Dang but don't those piggies look good, all snuggled up tight in their blankies with a bit o' Koops! Y'awl got me thinking...

But what's worse is the ref to stuffed cabbage rolls. I used to have this Jewish buddy from Kiev whose wife made the most ab fab stuffed cabbage rolls I've ever had. Typically I ate myself into such a state that my gravitational field collapsed into a black hole I was so massive...

Unfortunately Natan moved, and I lost the source. Anyone have/know a great SCR recipe? (Natan's was pork, of course... : )

Geo

Dang but don't those piggies look good, all snuggled up tight in their blankies with a bit o' Koops! Y'awl got me thinking...

But what's worse is the ref to stuffed cabbage rolls. I used to have this Jewish buddy from Kiev whose wife made the most ab fab stuffed cabbage rolls I've ever had. Typically I ate myself into such a state that my gravitational field collapsed into a black hole I was so massive...

Unfortunately Natan moved, and I lost the source. Anyone have/know a great SCR recipe? (Natan's was pork, of course... : )

Geo

I came across a new entry in the Pigs in Blanket competition at Lincolnwood Produce. They carry mini Bobak dogs called Bobak Deli Brand Wieners that are slightly larger (and much more bland looking) than the usual mini-dogs people have been using. These are approx 4" long instead of the more standard 2" dogs and feature a natural casing.

Bobak Deli Brand Wieners


These look to be more in the Oscar Meyer school of under-seasoned goyish style dogs, and probably not something I would use when making Pigs in Blankets. Nonetheless, there are those who prefer this style of dog (I suppose) and with their extra long length, might be good for Pigs in Blankets served as a main dish instead of a snack.

I just used the hotdogs (cut up) pictured above by Stevez for pigs in a blanket yesterday. While it is true that they were not aggressively seasoned, they were delicious. I had to hide some from the adults so that the kids could get some. I'd use them again for the same application.

-ramon

Anyone have recent recs on where to source these, either pre-made or components? We need a jillion for a kids party and prefer best quality ingredients. I struck out at Costco this week, but have never looked before at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, etc, so I'm grateful for your guidance!

Check with Romanian Kosher . . . best I've come across: http://www.romaniankoshersausage.com/home.html

Oops -- you may be talking pre-made? That I can't help with . . . but you can probably make hundreds in less than an hour.

annak wrote:Anyone have recent recs on where to source these, either pre-made or components? We need a jillion for a kids party and prefer best quality ingredients. I struck out at Costco this week, but have never looked before at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, etc, so I'm grateful for your guidance!

Vienna Beef Factory Store carries their mini dogs in 1-pound, cryovacked packs. You can buy Pillsbury crescent dough en masse right up the street at Costco. Roll them yourself. It doesn't take long. My friend and I can bang out about 500 in 2 hours (and have done so many times).

=R=

Vienna Beef Factory Store (call first, hours are odd)
2501 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 278-7800

Costco
2746 N Clybourn Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 360-2053

PIB-our whole family loves them-they transcend all age groups.

Sounds to me like a fun thing to do with a bunch of kids at a kids' party.

For me it's always Vienna with the Pillsbury dough. But I hate it when it's someone uses too much dough. That's why I also don't get the Vienna Bagel or Pretzel mini dogs already made (as most of you probably agree). My older brother and his wife are kind of clueless when it comes to making them right. Last holiday they cooked them at home and brought them to my mom's house. That part is fine, but when they said they wanted to serve it right out of their container (warm, but moist) my mom and I looked at each other and said "No, that's ok, we'll put them in the oven for a couple more minutes." You have to serve them out of the oven to get that crispiness!

Yep, its a Pigs in a Blanket kind of night!

Before reading this thread, the only Pigs in Blankets I knew of goes with lingonberry pancakes...

Sometimes, I go Down Under for *their* wonderful version of PIB: sausage rolls!!

Geo

They were trashy and greasy and everything that Pigs in a Blanket should be. Comfort food doesn’t have to “good” in the usual sense of the word. The ingredients are low-quality, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve never had a chef-driven version of Pigs in a Blanket, but I can tell you right now: they probably won’t be as good as you expect them to be because they’ll fail to hit the requisite (low) notes.

Long ago Campbell's posted a recipe (IIRC): Pillsbury refrigerator rolls, Vienna sausages, and a sauce made either from cream o' celery or cream o' asparagas. My mom of course made them, and I loved them. I could eat several, right now!

Yours look perfect, Hammond, exactly correct. Bien fait! Now you just need to pour on the Campbell's 'sauce.'

Geo