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Pigs in Blankets


Malawry

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How do you make your pigs in blankets? The New York Times recently ran a story about their comeback, so I know ya'll have to have been all over them for some time now. (Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be a thread on the subject--not by my search anyway.)

I am making them for a party soon, and I am trying to figure out if there's any online supplier who makes a better smoked sausage than I can find in my local supermarket. I like individual sausages, not big ones cut into little pieces, in my pigs in blankets. If I have time, I'll wrap them in scratch puff pastry...if not, I'll use the frozen stuff. I plan to serve with a honey mustard sauce (1:1:1 good mustard:honey:mayo) but am open to other ideas.

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These are the Original Style Pigs in a Blanket, (around here aka sarma), and they're still standard fare at all weddings and funerals. There's a perpetual argument, based on your heritage, whether or not they should use any tomato product.

SB (whose Serbian Grandma was of the NO-tomato school) :raz:

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Growing up, as I did, in an international household,( Mom is off the boat from England, dad is an american first generation from Germany) We always enjoyed these in two forms.

The English version is called sausage rolls. This is a mild type of sausage, (Think jimmy Dean's) that is rolled into hotdog type shapes, cooked a bit in the frypan to remove some of the fat, then rolled in a rich pastry dough and cooked until brown.

These were served with english mustard to dip them in.

The German version was more of a frankfurter, that is rolled up in a biscuit type of dough, and baked , again, until the outside is brown. mustard, again, and pickles on the side. Cheese optional. I'd suggest making some with, and without the cheese.

I'm not sure about the puff pastry, I'm thinking, they'd be to flaky? Not sturdy enough?

Our hands down fave is the sausage roll. They don't disintergrate when bitten into, and provide a nice vechicle for the wonderful, porky goodness inside.

---------------------------------------

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We did have some sort of discussion here about pigs-in-blankets a long time ago, because I scribbled down a recipe that had a sweet sauce - pecans, butter, brown sugar, etc. I'm at work now, :wacko: but I'll look for it when I get home. It was really, really, really good.

Edited by Dana (log)

Stop Family Violence

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We did have some sort of discussion here about pigs-in-blankets a long time ago, because I scribbled down a recipe that had a sweet sauce - pecans, butter, brown sugar, etc. I'm at work now,  :wacko: but I'll look for it when I get home. It was really, really, really good.

That was my recipe. :biggrin: But I can't remember the topic it was in. I'm glad you liked it!

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Rochelle, do you have a meat market that you use for superlative sausages? If so, ask them to twist up a mess of little ones for you. I know my local joint, which I love, makes their brats way too long for my liking, so I asked for shorter ones, and voila! I got shorter ones (helps if you bribe them with smoked meat...).

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Here's Marlene's recipe.

It looks wonderful, and since I get get little sausages at the local meat market (which are fab), I'm thinking these might be a good activity for the kids who are off school for several days!

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Here's Marlene's recipe.

It looks wonderful, and since I get get little sausages at the local meat market (which are fab), I'm thinking these  might be a good activity for the kids who are off school for several days!

Mine is almost the same as Marlene's, except I use Trader Joe's "sweet hot mustard" or a good version of Honey Mustard, and spread it on the crescent roll 1/3's before rolling the "Lil Smokies" into them. I brush an egg wash on them before baking, and then sprinkle with a combo of black and white sesame seeds. Everyone goes crazy for them! Cheers,

Carolyn

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

J.R.R. Tolkien

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My local Costco sells 2-3lb packages of mini sausages made by Aidells...well worth checking out! I'm a big fan of Aidells, esp their chicken apple sausage; always have them in my freezer. In Costco, they're in the refrigerated section, along with cheeses.

"I'm not eating it...my tongue is just looking at it!" --My then-3.5 year-old niece, who was NOT eating a piece of gum

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"He's jumped the flounder, as you might say."

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My local Costco sells 2-3lb packages of mini sausages made by Aidells...well worth checking out!  I'm a big fan of Aidells, esp their chicken apple sausage; always have them in my freezer.  In Costco, they're in the refrigerated section, along with cheeses.

Yep, love those too! We always have them on-hand also.

Will say, despite what some may say re: the "low-brow" nature of the crescent rolls and 'lil smokies with honey mustard: my pigs-n-blanket get invited first for Super Bowl and then US!

Cheers,

Carolyn

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

J.R.R. Tolkien

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I also go the "low brow" route with 'lil Smokies, but I do make up a buttermilk biscuit dough from scratch for the pastry, and do some grated cheese, a little dry mustard and garlic poweder directly in the dough. The biscuit dough makes a nice flexible blanket to wrap the piggies up in, and a sturdy carrier once they have baked. Southern style pigs, I suppose.

I never knew they were "out" and neither have my kids. This is the obligatory breakfast for Thanksgiving Day, to keep everyone gnoshing while the Turkeys are cooking!

Anne

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These are the Original Style Pigs in a Blanket, (around here aka sarma), and they're still standard fare at all weddings and funerals.  There's a perpetual argument, based on your heritage, whether or not they should use any tomato product. 

SB (whose Serbian Grandma was of the NO-tomato school) :raz:

Those are the kind of pigs in blankets I grew up with, too, Steve. My Swiss mom used tomato sauce.

(I am too lazy to make them. Sometimes I do a layered casserole type thing, and shred the cabbage.)

I like the pastry wrapped ones too, and the honey mustard sounds great.

sparrowgrass
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Pigs in blankets are one of the great foods, right up there with BLTs and pizza for their combination of fatty, sweet and salty. I wanted to have them at our wedding but it was a kosher-dairy lunchtime event, which improved the desserts immeasurably but the pigs in blankets were a casualty.

While aesthetically the miniature, individual sausages are slightly preferable, there are some good reasons to go with cut up sections of larger units. For one thing, your selection is multiplied about a million-fold. A supermarket with two kinds of mini sausages has a huge selection, whereas most every American supermarket has dozens of full-size sausage choices. In particular, you rarely see a natural casing product in the mini size. For another thing, the rolling a longer sausage in dough and then cutting it up is much less labor intensive. Or, for a meal, you don't even have to cut it up: a whole frankfurter wrapped in biscuit dough (my first girlfriend, who grew up in Lancaster, PA, introduced me to that) is a fantastic supper. And I think if you do a nice bias cut and ditch (that is to say, snack on during production) the ends then you can make very attractive pigs in blankets from whole large sausages.

Sauces: a variety of sauces is a nice touch. Some people like a sweet honey-mustard sauce, and some people think a cloying sauce ruins everything so they prefer spicy mustard. Other folks like ketchup-based sauces. Serve all three and everybody will be happy.

Interesting that they're called pigs in blankets even though, at least where I'm from, they're usually made from all-beef frankfurters.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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These are the Original Style Pigs in a Blanket, (around here aka sarma), and they're still standard fare at all weddings and funerals.  There's a perpetual argument, based on your heritage, whether or not they should use any tomato product. 

SB (whose Serbian Grandma was of the NO-tomato school) :raz:

Stevo, I'm with you on this version, no tomato, since my Grandmother (maternal) was Serbian.

"I drink to make other people interesting".

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These particular pigs in blankets are for a catering job, so I am very concerned with the look of the final product. They have to look tidy and enticing on the platter. Can these look good if they're made from cut-up sausages? I can't really do Marlene's recipe in this case but it's a cool idea that I might use for entertaining at home.

I Googled on "gourmet sausages" and Aidell's came up first--and their product list includes three mini-sausages. But I've never seen their minis at my local Costco. Harumph. Also, Cajun Grocer lists some "party size" boudins--would Cajun boudin make a good pig in a blanket? I've actually never eaten Cajun boudin. The people coming to this party I'm catering are all in the seniors age group so I need something...familiar, but I don't want it to suck. I never make anything that sucks and sell it to other people, y'know?

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I wouldn't go for the boudin for pigs. Stick with a regular sausage, especially since

you're serving seniors. Let us know what you end up with. Here in SE TX, 'party size' is bun size. I"m assuming you want more of a finger-type food, and cutting up the boudin would create a messy platter, be messy to eat, difficult to dip and more trouble than cutting up regular size sausages.

Stop Family Violence

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I second what Dana said. Boudin is a very soft product-rice is the filling. You want something firm to contrast the soft bread part of the pigs in blanket. We always had them with lil'smokies and the blanket part was often more biscuit like than puff pastry like. Either way, they are the first things to go at any event. We often served them with bbq sauce and a variety of mustards. Most of the people I know, when given a choice between a pig in the blanke or a pate will go for the pig in the blanket (actually more like 5 or 6 of them).

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. Epicetus

Amanda Newton

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Our home version was an all-beef hotdog, split down the middle, stuffed with sharp cheddar cheese, wrapped with whompum cornbread twists, baked and then eaten with lots of mustard and relish or BBQ sauce.

I learned my "party" version in college. My roomie would make the Kennedy Little Smokies (half currant jelly, half mustard), then take those and wrap them in Bisquik biscuits with some of the sauce. I use Usingers chicken apple sausage, warm it in the currant jelly/mustard sauce (or sometimes pepper jelly), and then wrap them in a white cheddar bisciut - and to get kind of the same shape and presentation as the Little Smokies, I quarter the sausage lengthwise, then into about 2 inch pieces.

I never knew they were out either! I love all 3 of these, they all have their own memories attached.

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." - Frederico Fellini

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I hadn't noticed this thread when I posted about the Williams bangers in the mail order food thread in the special occasions section.

I believe those bangers would be perfect for the English style sausage rolls mentioned previously here.

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My sons were both in their top cricket team at school for about 3 years each and we mothers used to provide a suitably ripping afternoon tea for team and visitors. A retiring mum told me to corner the sausage roll department. Kids didn't want poncey sandwiches and cakes - just sausage rolls and tomato sauce, she advised. So for about five years every summer my Saturday morning ritual was to defrost the sossie rolls while the oven heated, make a big basketful of same, drop whichever son at school with our contribution then return later in the day to help serve afternoon tea. Never bothered making the sausage rolls from scratch. Checked the various frozen brands, found one that was great and stuck with it. One pack made about three dozen. The tomato sauce (ketchup) was an absolute must!

The basket was always empty at the end of the day plus I made some great friends in the kitchen.

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Chez Foodbabe, we call them Wieners Wellington. Sometimes they're Lobel's hot dogs, sometimes Aidell's or from a shop here in town, but they're always in Dufour's puff pastry. Accompaniments: Half hot mustard/half apricot preserves (heated, pureed and strained).

Edited by FabulousFoodBabe (log)
"Oh, tuna. Tuna, tuna, tuna." -Andy Bernard, The Office
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