Bisquick is a pre-mixed baking mix sold by

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company or ...

under its

Betty Crocker Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The character was originally created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 following a contest in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. In 1954, G ...

brand, consisting of

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cul ...

, shortening,

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

and baking powder (a leavening agent).

History

According to General Mills, Bisquick was invented in 1930 after one of their top sales executives met an innovative train

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that do ...

chef, on a business trip. After the sales executive complimented the chef on his deliciously fresh

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be s ...

s, the dining car chef shared that he used a pre-mixed biscuit batter he created consisting of lard, flour, baking powder and salt. The chef then stored this pre-mixed biscuit batter on ice in his kitchen, enabling him to bake fresh biscuits quickly on the train every day. As soon as the sales executive returned from that business trip, he “created” Bisquick. The recipe was adapted, using

hydrogenated oil Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining fat – typically liquid vegetable oils – with hydrogen, to convert some or all of the unsaturated fat into saturated fat, resulting in a solid or semi-solid fat. Changing the degree of saturation ...

, thus eliminating the need for refrigeration. Bisquick was officially introduced on grocers' shelves in 1931. Though first promoted for only baking biscuits ("90 seconds from package to oven", the slogan read), Bisquick was soon used to prepare a wide variety of baked goods from

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, on ...

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...

to pancakes to dumplings to

snickerdoodle A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with flour, fat, sugar, and salt, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough. Snickerdoodles are charact ...

cookies.

Substitution

One cup of Bisquick can be substituted by a mixture of one cup of flour, teaspoons of baking powder, teaspoon of salt, and tablespoons of oil or melted butter (or by cutting in tbsp Crisco or lard).

Ingredients

The ingredients in Bisquick Original consist of bleached

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bre ...

(enriched with

niacin Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid, is an organic compound and a form of vitamin B3, an essential human nutrient. It can be manufactured by plants and animals from the amino acid tryptophan. Niacin is obtained in the diet from a variet ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and

folic acid Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing a ...

corn starch Corn starch, maize starch, or cornflour (British English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or sou ...

dextrose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, usin ...

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced fr ...

, leavening ( baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), canola oil, salt, sugar,

DATEM DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides, also E472e) is an emulsifier primarily used in baking to strengthen the gluten network in dough. It is added to crusty breads, such as rye, to impart a springy, chewy texture. It is ...

, and distilled monoglycerides. Bisquick Heart Smart is formulated with canola oil resulting in less

saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branche ...

and 0g trans fat. Bisquick also comes in a gluten-free variety, which uses rice flour instead of regular flour.

References

External links

*
Official website Bisquick RecipesHistory of BisquickHow Bisquick got its start
{{pancakes General Mills brands Products introduced in 1931 Baking mixes American pancakes