“Top sliced” hot dog buns

One thing I never knew was different between the Midwest and the East Coast until I moved here: the slicing of hot dog buns.

Where I grew up, hot dogs had smooth sides — like the outside of a loaf of bread. The slice was cut in what I think of as the ‘top’ of the bun — the bun was rounded on three sides, and looked like a loaf, except on the bottom, which was white, bread-like material.

In the midwest, they’re sliced (or made entirely) a different way — the sides that you put your hand on are not smooth, outside-of-load like material, but instead bread-filler-like white material, with the loaf-like stuff on top — looking more like two pieces of bread.

The words for these appear to be “side-sliced” (which is what I grew up with):

Side sliced hot dog bun

and “top-sliced”:

I just never knew that hot dog buns could be sliced a different way.

2 Responses to ““Top sliced” hot dog buns”

  1. Travis Says:

    I know this is an older post, but I just learned that the “top sliced” I grew up wth were some freakish regional thing. I grew up in New Brunswick, Canada and these are pretty common, though “side sliced” was also commonly seen. Anyway, I just sent a link to your photo to my girlfriend, who is from western Canada, and she replied saying they were “odd and wrong”

  2. native midwesterner Says:

    I was casually playing a game of dice at the dinning room table of an east coast native friend’s house when I noticed tow random pieces of of oddly shaped and sized pieces of white bread sitting at the table. I asked my friend what these pieces of bread were doing and he replied…. “thats a hot dog bun”. and i said “NO its not…. they are cut like this”….motioning a side sliced bun. after a bit of debate and much laughter we did like most and googled it. and here we came across this! the perfect article to settle it… we were both right and wrong depending on where you’re from.
    Thanks for laugh