Baby in the Oven Stories, a Holiday Tradition, are Back

Along with turkey and cranberry sauce, those "baby in the oven" stories are another Thanksgiving tradition.

You know... word spreads that some mother (or uncle, or brother, or stranger) accidentally (or not) puts a child in the oven, either to shut it up or keep it warm, or maybe the child just has a striking resemblance to a turkey.

Every year such stories make the rounds on the Internet, and although some of them are true, very few baby in the oven incidents actually happen.

People searching for them on the Web will find some articles, but the most recent one I found was from January 2007, and a couple others were at least a couple of years older than that. (You can find recipes for "roasted baby turnips," but no roasted baby.)

The baby in a microwave oven seems to be just a more modern variation on this oft-rumored tale.

So rest easy... there is no holiday epidemic of cooks putting their babies in the oven, whether intentionally or accidentally. But I guess once people are done looking for turkey recipes or Thanksgiving MySpace greetings, the next tradition is to see if anyone's stuck a baby in the oven recently.