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Original poster

When did pigs in blankets become a thing?

117 replies

Apolloanddaphne · 17/12/2019 09:40

When I was growing up (in the 60's and 70's, east of Scotland) we had chipolatas and streaky bacon rolls but they were never wrapped together, they were cooked separately. Then suddenly they seemed to be wrapped together and called pigs in blankets. When did this transition happen? Was it always there and my family just missed the memo back in the day?

OP posts:
LittleAndOften · 17/12/2019 09:42

I was born in 78 and we always had them (albeit far too few and usually blackened because my parents think they take the same amount of time to cook as a turkey!)

DDIJ · 17/12/2019 09:43

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ivykaty44 · 17/12/2019 09:44

Your family missed the memo back in the day, did they burden you with other atrocities?

Been having pigs in blankets since the 1960s but live well south

SisterSistine · 17/12/2019 09:47

Always been pigs in blankets in our house. In America pigs in blankets are hotdogs in dough, like a weird and wrong sausage roll.

Original poster
Apolloanddaphne · 17/12/2019 09:55

Christmas dinner back in the day was always excellent. My DM still makes her famous stuffing to this day. The bacon and sausages separately didn't actually lose anything taste wise as they were lovely.

OP posts:
Comefromaway · 17/12/2019 09:56

They were a feature of every restaurant christmas dinner menu I can remember (so from the 80's onwards)

jay55 · 17/12/2019 09:59

Always had them in the west country, we also used to have the bacon curls alone too, I don't know when that stopped.

lancaster · 17/12/2019 10:04

Agree, not part of my 80s childhood either.

AgeLikeWine · 17/12/2019 10:06

We had separate sausages & bacon rolls when I was growing up in the 80s. I give Delia the credit for making pigs in blankets universal in the 90s. Supermarkets quickly caught onto the idea that they could flog them as a value-added convenience product, and they became ubiquitous.

bellinisurge · 17/12/2019 10:08

Since forever. I'm a child of the sixties. Northern England. Every Christmas.

ghostmouse · 17/12/2019 10:09

They've always been called pigs in blankets ever since I was little and I'm 42 so defo not a recent thing Confused

LadyR77 · 17/12/2019 10:10

My mum always did (and still does!) cocktail sausages and streaky bacon rolls separately too - I grew up in the late 70s and 80s. My husband, same age as me, always had pigs in blankets growing up, so finds my mum's way of doing things really odd!

ShristmasChopper · 17/12/2019 10:11

I was a 70s child.and we always had them.
No idea if they were a new thing or not but I recall my grandmother saying how they didn't have enough bacon and sausages in the war (WW2) for pigs in blankets.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 17/12/2019 10:12

We've always had them, but call them sausages wrapped in bacon. Which I suppose is slightly less catchy.

Wishforsnow · 17/12/2019 10:14

We always had them in the 70s and called them pigs in blankets

Original poster
Apolloanddaphne · 17/12/2019 10:14

Hmm. So no clear answer there. I am seeing my DM later. I will ask her if she recalls when the transition happened.

OP posts:
Chemenger · 17/12/2019 10:15

We had chipolatas wrapped in bacon but I don’t remember them being called pigs in blankets (born in the 60’s, Scotland). I don’t think they are an Americanism (is it really necessary to badge everything vaguely unfamiliar as American?) I’ve had both Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner there and I don’t think they had them. As a PP said pigs in blankets are more like sausage rolls over there. They don’t have proper sausage rolls which is odd.

Legomadx2 · 17/12/2019 10:17

We ate them - minus the twee name - in the west country in the 1970s.

The name is new to me. Maybe it's a northern thing?

PegHughes · 17/12/2019 10:23

I'm quite old and I don't ever remember having them.

I moved to France in the 1991 and when I came back to the UK in 2000 I found they were definitely a thing. I don't know what happened in the nineties to make that happen was it something to do with Tony Blair?

MysweetAudrina · 17/12/2019 10:24

Not part of the traditional Irish Christmas dinner but since reading the Christmas dinner threads on MN they are now part of my Christmas Dinner.

x2boys · 17/12/2019 10:25

I think my mum might have cooked sausages around the Turkey and bacon on top.of the Turkey ? I was an early 70, baby so grew up 70,s and 80,s I must ask her but she always baked her own Xmas cake and mince pies too..

bodgeitandscarper · 17/12/2019 10:26

Always had them as pigs in blankets; I'm Northen born mid sixties.

farseabouttinsel · 17/12/2019 10:27

I thought pigs in blankets has always been a thing, along with devils on horseback?! Although a quick google shows me that pigs in blankets can mean wrapped in pastry not bacon..

FruityWidow · 17/12/2019 10:28

Always been pigs in blankets to me - 35 years. We also did prunes wrapped in bacon too called Devils on Horseback and I think oysters wrapped in bacon is Angels on Horseback.

Ginkypig · 17/12/2019 10:29

Scotland 80's we had them but we called them kilted sausages.