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No one’s completely sure. The most common theory is that since there were harsh punishments for medieval bakers who shorted their customers, they took to throwing in an extra item in case any of them were accidentally a little light (many of them didn’t have scales, so they couldn’t tell exactly).

Punishments for medieval bakers were kind of wild—ranging from fines to getting dunked in the river—so the extra caution makes a lot of sense.

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Reed Keeling

Lvl 10
4y ago
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Anonymous

Lvl 1
3y ago
this is wrong you troll
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Clark Rosenbaum

Lvl 10
14y ago

Because it's not a normal dozen it's a baker's dozen. Because it's not a normal dozen it's a baker's dozen.

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Oscar Groombridge

Lvl 3
4y ago

It is the leftover dough that is either not enough (so put in for the baker to eat) or it is in case one of the others doesn't rise properly. This was to avoid harsh mediaval punishments if there weren't enoughloaves of bread.

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Mihan Munawar

Lvl 2
4y ago

In 13th century England, a law was enacted which prevented bakers from cheating customers and selling light loaves of bread. To prevent themselves from getting in trouble with the law, bakers would give an extra loaf for every dozen purchased to make up for any potential shortfall.

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Chuck Kinn

Lvl 2
4y ago

Another answer I have heard along my 60 years is.... An extra one was included in case one of the "dozen" was bad. Then you think wait... 13? As in Friday the 13th?

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Gary Bennett

Lvl 2
4y ago

Because the baker had to many rolls left over, so he added one to the dozen or 13 a bakers dozen.

                                     Gary B
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Kristen Paris

Lvl 2
4y ago

I have heard several theories on this, but since nobody seems certain, as a frequent baker, I will throw one more into the mix. On a cookie sheet, to maximize space utilization, cookies (or rolls, etc) are often staggered to fit as many as possible in the pan. So a row of 3 is followed by a row of 2 in the gaps, followed by another row of 3, etc. Alternating rows like this brings us to 3+2+3+2+3 = 13, which often fills a pan.

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Silas Schulz

Lvl 3
4y ago

I think a bakers dozen is 13 because if the cook tried to poisen the cookies or something,

there would be a taster person that would taste them. If it was piosened, the king would know because the taster would probobly die.

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Nur Eisya

Lvl 2
4y ago

to taste it for sure !

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Morgan Burlamachi

Lvl 2
4y ago

B/c they need to try it out.

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Q: Why is a baker's dozen 13?
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