Food and Recipes Kitchen Assistant Why There are 13 in a Baker's Dozen It's been this way for almost 1,000 years. By Micah A Leal Micah A Leal Micah Leal is a chef and recipe developer with more than 5 years of professional experience in restaurants and bakeries such as Husk Restaurant and Harken Cafe & Bakery in Charleston, South Carolina. Micah Leal is an enthusiastic chef with a special interest in the food science and culinary histories that shape the recipes people make today. His reputation for making recipes accessible and thoughtfully teaching difficult kitchen techniques is informed by his experience as a pastry chef as well as his background as a high school teacher. He has also developed nearly 200 recipes for southernliving.com and Southern Living Magazine. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on August 10, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Todor Tsvetkov/Getty Images 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), but rather, the 13 items that comprise a "baker's dozen" most likely started as a response to a law passed almost 1,000 years ago in England under the reign of King Henry III. Bread is not easily predictable—the time it takes to rise or the amount of air developed beneath the crust of a fresh loaf depends on conditions often uncontrollable to the baker (especially 900 years ago). While King Henry III was ruling England, bakers were developing a reputation for shortchanging their customers by giving them bread that did not weigh as much as what was being paid for. The king determined a specific weight that customers could legally expect a baker to provide for a certain price. The punishment for the baker for breaking this law could include beating and imprisonment. However, the problem remains that yeast in bread dough has a mind of its own and the weight of two loaves of identical size might weigh different amounts—so bakers began throwing in an extra loaf for good measure when customers ordered a dozen. That way the baker would never be found short of the legal standard. WATCH: This is the Secret to Making Bakery-Worthy Bread at Home 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. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit