According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, a genuinely not made-up trade association devoted to promoting wieners and other tubed meats, the mismatch between packs of buns and hot dogs goes back to the 1940s as prepackaged hot dogs became popular in supermarkets.

According to the trade group, Oscar Meyer started the trend by selling 1.6-ounce links, giving the total package weight of 16 ounces, or one pound. Other brands followed suit, making ten packs of dogs the defacto standard. Unfortunately, a different standard was at work on the bakery side, with four bun pans being the norm, leading to 8-bun packs.

For eight long decades, hot dog makers and bun bakers have operated with little coordination, much to the chagrin of lovers of frankfurters. Though the Hot Dog and Sausage Council consider topping dogs with ketchup uncouth for adults, Kraft Heinz has reached across the supermarket aisle and teamed up with Wonder Bread to finally offer consumers matching quantities of buns with dogs. Heinz is known for the tomato-based condiment, but corporate parent Kraft Heinz also owns beloved hot dog maker Oscar Mayer.