making them from scratch. Its promise of easy baked goods with no kneading or rolling is

something that many home cooks can get behind. Anyone can add a couple eggs and some milk

and stir, right?

But where did this baking shortcut in a box really come from?

Carl Smith, a sales executive at General Mills, created the recipe for Bisquick in 1930. The

story goes, according to Mental Floss, that he had the idea for it after enjoying some

delicious biscuits on a train ride to San Francisco. Tom Forsythe, General Mills' vice

president of global communications, explained:

"He arrived in the dining car late. It had closed for the evening. But he did order biscuits,

and then very quickly thereafter arrived hot biscuits."

Smith asked the cook how he made them. The cook showed him a pre-mixed blend of flour,

salt, baking powder and lard kept on ice. From there, the wheels started turning.

Smith quickly pitched the idea of a pre-made biscuit mix to General Mills executives, who

decided that their version shouldn't need to be kept in an icebox. The company's head

chemist, Charlie Kress, led the effort to create Bisquick, which hit store shelves in

1931. It was so popular that other companies began creating their own versions, though

Bisquick continued to outsell them.

According to Taste, that chef on the train, who was never named nor given credit for inspiring

Bisquick, was black. And General Mills would continue to cut black people out of its marketing

for years: None appeared in 1933's Betty Crocker's 101 Delicious Bisquick Creations. Then, in

1935, How To Take a Trick a Day With Bisquick portrayed black people only as servants.

By the 1940s, Bisquick began to market itself as a cheap convenience food. The company began

using the slogan, "a world of baking in a box," to demonstrate that the mix could be

used for more than just biscuits. Bisquick began printing recipes for other baked goods,

such as dumplings, muffins, and coffee cake, on its boxes.

"With Bisquick, the seven basic recipes on the box are as easy as 1-2-3. Just mix, spoon,

and bake."

In the late 1960s, General Mills changed the recipe to make the biscuits lighter and fluffier.

The company added buttermilk and more shortening, dubbing the revamped recipe "New Bisquick."

It eventually replaced the original version, soon reverting to its original name.

In the 1970s and '80s, Bisquick turned its focus back to Bisquick's versatility. Betty

Crocker's Bisquick Cookbook, published in 1971, had more than 200 recipes. By 1980,

a fan club called the Bisquick Recipe Club sent cookbooks and a newsletter, "The Bisquick

Banner," to fans.

Bisquick further simplified the baking process in the late '80s with Bisquick Shake 'n Pour,

which cut the milk and eggs, and even any measuring, out of the process. Bakers can

just add water to the container, shake it and pour it.

So the convenience factor is definitely there, but is Bisquick really cheaper than making

batters and doughs yourself? And how does it stack up nutritionally?

HuffPost did the math for the cost of using Bisquick against making pancakes from scratch,

and found that you're definitely paying a little extra for the convenience of the mix.

The publication found that it actually costs 2 cents less per serving if you make your

pancakes from scratch.

It's up to you whether that cost savings is worth the time and effort that goes into making

from-scratch pancakes. If you're making something like 100 servings every day, that definitely

will make more of a difference. If you only make pancakes for yourself once a week or

so, probably not.

"Go to the store to make pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!"

And though Bisquick may make baking and griddling quicker, it isn't necessarily healthier. The

original mix contains partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, otherwise known

as trans fat. Studies have shown trans fat can have negative health effects such as raising

LDL, the bad cholesterol, and lowering HDL, the good cholesterol.

Medline Plus reports that too much trans fat also increases the risk of heart disease and

stroke. To prevent Bisquick sales from going off a cliff when trans fat became a buzzword

of the worst kind, Betty Crocker introduced Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake and Baking Mix,

which contains no trans fats.

The company has also paid attention to the gluten-free trend, introducing a gluten-free

pancake and baking mix which uses rice flour and modified potato starch.

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