Why is a baker's dozen 13?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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?

Answer 6

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

                                     Gary B

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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.

Answer 9

to taste it for sure !

Answer 10

B/c they need to try it out.