National Pigs in a Blanket Day Date in the current year: April 24, 2024

Pigs in a blanket is an appetizer consisting of a small hot dog or another type of sausage wrapped in pastry. The origins of the dish are not particularly clear. There are recipes for a dish named “little pigs in blankets” in 19th-century American cookbooks, such as The Universal Cookery Book: Practical Recipes For Household Use published in 1887, but they describe a different dish consisting of oysters wrapped in bacon that is more commonly known as angels on horseback.

The earliest mentions of the modern version of pigs in a blanket can be traced back to 1940s. They can be found in a US Army cookbook that has recipes for pork sausage links (pigs) in blankets, frankfurters in blankets, and Vienna sausages in blankets. It is unclear, however, at what point “pigs in blankets” became “pigs in a blanket”.

The dish is usually made with hot dogs, but other types of sausage (breakfast sausage links, cocktail sausages, Vienna sausages) may also be used. The sausages are usually wrapped in store-bought croissant dough or, less commonly, biscuit dough. Small pigs in a blanket are usually served as an appetizer/finger food, sometimes accompanied by aioli or mustard, whereas the larger version of the dish may be served as a quick and easy light meal or main course.

An American Czech dish named klobasnek, also known as kolache in Texas, is somewhat similar to pigs in a blanket. Klobasneks traditionally consist of sausages wrapped in sweet yeast dough. In some variations of the dish, other fillings such as cheese, eggs, ham or peppers are used alongside or instead of sausage.

Dishes similar to pigs in a blanket can also be found in many other countries around the globe, from Argentina to China. In some cuisines, sausages are wrapped in bread dough rather than in puff pastry, and in Argentina, empanada dough is commonly used. In China, sausages wrapped in dough are steamed rather than baked. A Mexican dish called salchitaco is made by wrapping the sausage in tortilla and then deep frying it in vegetable oil.

Pigs in a blanket are often confused with pigs in blankets, a similarly named dish popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The one thing that the two dishes have in common is that both consist of wrapped sausages. However, Americans wrap sausages in dough before baking them, whereas in the UK and Ireland, sausages are wrapped in bacon before being baked or pan-fried.

It is unknown who and when came up with the idea of National Pigs in a Blanket Day and why its date is April 24, but don’t let it stop you from celebrating this amazing holiday. Make pigs in a blanket the way you like them or try a new recipe, invite your friends over for a pigs in a blanket cook-off, and share photos of your pigs in a blanket on social media with the hashtags #NationalPigsInABlanketDay and #PigsInABlanketDay to spread the word about the holiday.