Thursday, May 26

 
Historic breakthrough! Dogs Match Buns!

So it's not as groundbreaking as a Iranian nuclear test-ban treaty. But thrifty sausage-eaters everywhere will rejoice to know that in Chicago, the decades-old tragedy of wasted buns is about to end.

That's because Vienna Beef, which makes sausage among other meat products, has brokered an agreement with a commercial bakery, Alpha Baking (S. Rosen buns) to put eight buns in a bag to match Vienna Beef's 8 tube steaks per pouch.

This news story -- "alleged news story," we should say, because it sounds like a press release even though it came from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University -- claims 2 million buns go stale every year because the number of buns in a bag doesn't match the number of dogs in a package. We weren't aware that it was a crisis, perhaps because we either don't eat that many hot dogs or we find other uses for those extra buns.

No, our problem is Johnsonville, which packages its fresh brats 5 to a tray, but local bakers sell brat buns (shorter, wider and denser than hot dog buns) six or eight to a package. So we buy the frozen cooked version, which comes six to a bag.

(Here in Wisconsin you would think buying a frozen cooked version would be tantamount to treason; actually, they come pretty close to the actual grilled version. It works for us because we're not hardcores who grill all winter long, just until the snow covers the grill.)
posted by Unknown 3:54 PM