The common explaination for a bakers dozen is that long ago a law came out saying that if you short changed people on the weight of bread, you lost a hand. Ouch! As a solution, bakers started giving 13 loaves to prevent the charge.
But the problem with this is:
- The law was only in Britian, but all of Europe used it, as well as in the USA once the became independant.
- Who in their right mind would lose 1/12th of their profit willingly in every transaction?
My Highly Uneducated Internet Based Opinion
I found another solution which appeals to me, and so I am going to push it forward. Now being a profit minded baker, and not willing to lose a hand by skimping customers, I would have to look for efficiencies in other areas.
Well let's look at our oven, you can't make it bigger, but can you fit more in? or cook faster? or have a more consistant level of quality? Yes, Yes, and Yes.Amazing! How so? The answer lies in your baking sheet. A boring rectangle right? Correct. But a very astute baker would know that the corners heat up faster than the center, thus cooking faster. So you get well done on the corners, and not so well done in the center. So much for consistancy.
Our equally astute baker would realize that some objects (circles) leave a lot of wasted space when put in a 3x4 grid.
So if we put 1 and 1 together, we can get all 3! (see the table below)
| Picture | Notes |
|---|---|
| Boring rectangular pan with nifty shaded corners representing heat. |
| Gridded cookies, yummy, but inefficient. |
| Solution! No burnt corners, no wasted space, and an extra cookie to boot! |
Look at that! Much more consistant heat, which means a more consistant product. Less wasted space per sheet, meaning more can be cooked. Ta-Da! your making more in the same amount of time and space!