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Nobody in recorded history has said "too many pigs in blankets": every leftover is Boxing Day treasure, so the calculator already rounds up and you should too. Homemade (chipolatas + streaky bacon, half a rasher each) costs ~60% of ready-made and takes 15 minutes of wrapping the day before. They freeze raw beautifully: December's best make-ahead.
What The Pigs In Blankets Calculator Works Out
- You need: guests x pigs each, plus a 15% margin, rounded up. Three each suits tables that merely enjoy them, five the properly devoted majority and eight where they have quietly become the main event. An eight-guest table wants 45 to 50, which surprises first-time hosts and nobody who has watched the platter's half-life.
- Make your own: packs of 12 chipolatas and packs of 10 streaky rashers, with half a rasher wrapping each pig. Wrap on Christmas Eve, fridge overnight, or freeze raw for the genuinely organised.
- Timing: 25-30 minutes at 200C, turned once, in the oven slot that frees up while the turkey rests. It is the one festive component whose timing solves itself.
- Boxing Day margin and pack size (advanced): change the 15% leftover allowance (the leftover pig is Boxing Day currency and the shortfall pig a family incident) and the number per pack for the brand you buy.
- Ready-made cost versus homemade cost (advanced): packs at your shop price against chipolatas plus bacon at yours. Homemade typically lands at about 60% of the premium ready-made price, GBP 3 to GBP 4 a pack of 12 against roughly GBP 2 of ingredients.
- Saving by wrapping your own (advanced): the difference, for about 15 minutes of wrapping the day before.
- Vegetarian guests (advanced): takes them out of the meat count and works out a parallel platter of veggie pigs (usually packs of 8) at the same number each, cooked on a separate tray.
- Oven plan (advanced): trays or air-fryer batches needed and the clock times to put them in, turn and take out for your serving time. An air fryer does about 15 a batch in 12-15 minutes at 180C, so a big table needs several batches kept warm.