Simple ideas are the ones that make
History.....
The shelves of modern supermarkets are lined with
thousands of products designed to make our lives easier, but it wasn't
always that way. Prior to the early 20th century, cooking was time
consuming and most dishes were prepared "from scratch." It's no
wonder consumers were wild about Bisquick when it was introduced it
back in 1931. According to company lore, the inspiration for
the first packaged dry baking mix was the result of an encounter between a
General
Mills sales executive and a railway dining car chef. The chef
traveled the country by train with a pre-mixed batch of biscuit batter made of
lard, flour, baking powder and salt that he stored on ice in his kitchen,
thus enabling him to be able to produce hot, fresh biscuits very quickly. Although
first promoted for making biscuits ("90 seconds from package to
oven," the slogan read), Bisquick could be used to prepare a variety
of other foods. This simple idea and the production technologies
that resulted from the early development of Bisquick were used in
cake mixes and other convenience mixes of this type that we are familiar
with today. The Packaging
Manufacturers often alter the packaging of their products to reflect changing consumer trends,
new product variations, or for special promotions. Here's a look at some of the packaging changes for the
Bisquick
box throughout the last 73 years:
In 1931, the original Bisquick box featured a color scheme of green, red and white with a Gold Medal
logo on the front. This vintage look was reproduced on many
of the advertising items used for the company's 50th Anniversary promotions
in 1981.The familiar blue and yellow colors with the typed letter logo
were adopted and remained fairly constant throughout the
years. The color white instead of yellow seems to have been
used for their "lighter" fare recipe booklets and the
reduced fat version of the mix.
The 2004 package shows Bisquick's newest look that includes an
updated logo and a photo of Chicken Salsa, one of their new dinner
recipes. This change in product appearance, the first new
one in ten years, is part of a Bisquick campaign to bring
families back to the table with a collection of new, versatile
dinner recipes for today's generation.
The Ingredients - Changed or not?--You decide!
 The ingredients listed for the original baking mix were flour,
vegetable shortening, phosphate, sugar, dry skim milk, salt and
soda. A new Bisquick formula was developed in the late 1960's that added more shortening, a new
leavening system and buttermilk.
Between the consumer's desire to know and stricter FDA food labeling
requirements, the ingredient list on a box of 2004 Bisquick
reads like a laboratory checklist: Enriched flour bleached
(wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic
acid), partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil,
leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium
phosphate), dextrose, salt. Contains Wheat Ingredients. You can view current nutrition
facts and ingredient labels for Bisquick and other Betty
Crocker products at the General Mills corporate website.
New Products for Changing Times--Can it get any easier?
|
A favorite among campers because of its plastic
container and pre-measured ingredients. |
Lower fat content for those watching their
weight. Substitute for Original in many recipes |
Five Flavors - Buttermilk, Cheese-Garlic,
Three-Cheese, Cinnamon Swirl & Honey Butter |
| Bisquick Shake 'n Pour |
Reduced-Fat Bisquick |
Bisquick Complete |
Return to Bisquick
Main Page
|
