Why Are There 13 In A Baker's Dozen?

From roses to pencils, eggs to cookies, some things come by the dozen. But if you ask for a baker’s dozen at your local bakery, you’ll get 13—not 12—goodies. While a dozen means a group of 12, a baker’s dozen is a group of 13, an odd number of bakery goods that came about in medieval times.

Medieval Food Regulations

The story of the "baker's dozen" has nothing to do with faulty mathematics (bakers have to be good at basic math), or with a disposition of generosity (bakers have to make a living, too). Instead, the 13 items that comprise a baker's dozen most likely started as a response to the Assize of Bread and Ale Law passed in 1266 in England under the reign of King Henry III.

This was law regulated the sale and production of two foods that were important to daily life during this time period, bread and beer. For bread, this meant that the king determined a specific weight that customers could legally expect a baker to provide for a certain price. A medieval baker who violated this standard could be subjected to a beating and imprisonment.

Bread can be an unpredictable endeavor, even now. The time it takes to rise, and the amount of air developed in a fresh loaf depends on conditions often uncontrollable to the baker. Since yeast in bread dough has a mind of its own and the weight of two loaves of identical size might weigh different amounts. Throwing in an extra loaf for good measure when customers ordered a dozen ensured that the baker would never be short of the legal expectation. And so a baker's dozen was born.

Why Are Eggs And Bakery Goods Sold By The Dozen?

Selling food by the dozen goes back to Elizabethan England. Farmers and bakers adopted the practice of selling eggs and bakery items by the dozen as a way to make selling their goods in the market easier and to avoid making change.

According to the New York Times, a farmer could sell one egg for a penny or 12 for a shilling (which equaled 12 pennies). Selling things in units of 12 carried on to America, and when you buy eggs, they are still sold by the dozen.

Ordering A Baker's Dozen

When you order a baker’s dozen from your local bakery, you just might receive 13 cookies, rolls, or cupcakes for the price of 12. This luxury has persisted through the centuries even though no such law exists in our society today—and if you're anything like us, we're grateful a baker's dozen doesn't abide by the same rules of mathematics as everything else.

Be it fresh doughnuts, an assortment of cookies, or a box of delicate pastries, there always seems to be room for just one more.