April 7, 2007: History of the Baker's Dozen
According to Wikipedia:
The oldest known source and most probable origin for the expression "baker's
dozen" dates to the 13th century in one of the earliest English statutes,
instituted during the reign of Henry III (r. 1216-1272), called the Assize
of Bread and Ale. Bakers who were found to have shortchanged customers could
be liable to severe punishment. To guard against the crude punishment of losing
a hand to an axe, a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain
of not being known as a cheat. Specifically, the practice of baking 13 items
for an intended dozen was to prevent "short measure", on the basis
that one of the 13 could be lost, eaten, burnt or ruined in some way, leaving
the baker with the original dozen. The practice could be seen in the guild
codes of the Worshipful Company of Bakers in London.
Modern uses
While modern bakers no longer fear medieval law, they have found other reasons
for a baker's dozen, as seen in the tidy way 13 disks (loaves, cookies, biscuits,
etc.) can pack a rectangle (baking tray) of appropriate proportions. Modern
standard sized packing trays have a 3:2 aspect ratio, and the most efficient
two-dimensional array is hexagonal close packing, which has sixfold symmetry,
such that each baked item is equidistant from its six nearest neighbors. The
corners of a cookie sheet heat up and cool off faster than the edges and interior,
so any item placed near a corner will not bake at the same rate as the other
items. A 4+5+4 arrangement provides the dense hexagonal packing while avoiding
corners, and would have been discovered empirically by bakers with the goal
of baking the maximum number per batch with optimal uniformity. Continued
use also stems from tradition, and some customers see it as a sign of appreciation
from the baker for continued patronage.
Albuquerque
Tom
I don't mean to be a know-it-all but that Wikipedia report is all wrong.
The term Baker's dozen comes from Dusty Baker's on deck circle experience
on April 8, 1974 while Hank Aaron hit home run # 715 to surpass the flabby
and unathletic Babe (whose batting average in today's game would be .214 with
a career home run total just 4 above Steve Jeltz). It turns out that Dusty
had a bad case of diarrhea that day (he thinks it's from eating off of Phil
Neikro's plate the night before) and had already gone to the bathroom 12 times.
With all of the hoopla and celebration going on, Dusty had to go to restroom
again and couldn't wait any longer. He ran back in to the clubhouse and opened
up the floodgates. As he ran back to the batter's box just in time Jack Impy,
unofficial Braves statistician, called out "Dusty, what is that? 13 times
on the crapper today?"
Baker
shouted out, "12", and Impy wrote down "Baker's Dozen"
on the BM line, knowing that Dusty's 12 really equaled 11. This record would
have become much more prestigious had it not been overshadowed by Hank Aaron's
inevitable conquering of Babe Ruth's right-time-right-place so called achievement.
It was the first time a Braves player had gone to the bathroom over 10 times
and earned dusty the nickname '13 Timer' from his closest friends.
Now, oddly enough, one area where the Babe excelled: Babe Ruth actually used
the crapper 14 times EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE.
How the term Baker's dozen got transferred to donuts is a story that one of
you will have to share.
P.S. Regarding the Wikipedia quote: "While modern bakers no longer fear medieval law..."
This is also not true.
Ask any baker anywhere.
They are scared as hell.
White
Russian
The story of how the Baker's Dozen got associated with donuts starts with
Phil Niekro. For, you see, Phil (who's plate the night before was suspected
of giving Dusty the now infamous diarrhea) was a closet donut fiend. On game
days, Niekro would hide in his closet and eat an entire bag of donut holes.
Forty four seconds after the last donut hole, Phil would force himself to
vomit inside a jar. (He would wait exactly 44 seconds, by the way, in honor
of the great Hank Aaron, who wore the number 44.) The jar stayed in Niekro's
closet until he had a chance to dispose of the evidence of his behavior without
being caught. Niekro, in fact, was the first known practitioner of the "splurge
and purge" move so often employed by teen age girls who are insecure
in their body image. Niekro had no body image issues - his entire routine
was completely superstitious. How that superstition started is yet another
story that is better told by someone else.
Getting back to Dusty's connection, the night before Phil had been a little
distracted. He was not feeling as comfortable on the pitching mound recently
and had decided to change his usual routine to shake things up. He desperately
wanted to stop his donut addiction, so he used this opportunity to face his
donut demons and come clean with his fellow ballplayers. After that night's
game with purge jar in hand, Niekro made an impassioned speech before his
shocked teammates. After an hour of crying and sharing their own inner demons,
the players hit the post-game buffet with a fuller appreciation of life.
What
happened next was a twist of fate that would ultimately cause the (Dusty)
Baker's Dozen to be linked to a Baker's Dozen at the donut shop. A notorious
practical joker, Braves third baseman Darrell Evans managed to sprinkle some
of the contents of Niekro's purge jar onto Phil's plate, thinking it would
be hilarious to see Niekro's reaction. However, Niekro was emotionally spent
and did not touch any of the food on his plate. Which is where Dusty stepped
in. Baker could eat anything at anytime and Niekro's plate, which included
a generous portion of regurgitated donut holes, was quickly devoured. As far
as Evans was concerned this was even better than if Phil had been able to
eat that night. The next day, the diarrhea kicked in and the rest is history,
as Evans let everyone know that Baker had eaten Niekro's used donut holes.
Naturally the story spread quickly and from then on, at all the local donut
shops, whenever someone wanted to gross someone else out, they would hold
a jar out and say, "Hey, why don't you make it a Baker's Dozen?"
Over time, the story got watered down and became less about the purge and
all about getting a 13th donut when only 12 had been paid for...