Corn Bread

Found nowhere else in the world
Cornbread is the beautiful child of not having what you need and making do with what you've got and getting something even better. When the settlers first arrived in the Americas, there was no wheat flour for them to use for bread. So they took the corn meal that the Native Americans were using and figured out a way to make it into bread, or maybe cake. Let's be honest here. Either way, we give thanks for the pilgrims, settlers, and random whack-a-doodles that came to this country and gave us the joy of eating warm cornbread.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups Bisquick (just like our ancestors)
  • 1/2 c. white sugar
  • 1/2 c. corn meal
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 c milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 sticks melted butter
 
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Directions
  1. Mix Bisquick, white sugar, corn meal and baking soda with a fork. 
  2. Take note that there is just as much sugar as corn meal in this recipe, so it's really just sugar bread.
  3. Add the milk, eggs, and melted butter.
  4. Pour in an uncreased 9 x 13 inch pan.
  5. Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes. Check it with a fork, if gooey, let it cook, if not, then time to enjoy
  6. ​Cut a piece while it's still steaming hot, slather a piece of butter on it and think of your ancestors dying of cholera.
Home made Bisquick
Ingredients
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 TBSP baking powder
  • 1 TBSP salt
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening​ (cubed)
Directions
  • Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a food processor
  • Pulse ingredients for about 15 seconds.
  • Add in the vegetable shortening and pulse the processor until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
  • You can store it for about 3 months in the fridge.
Bisquick (for real)
Bisquick was invented, or as we'll see, discovered by the folks at General Mills. According to legend, Carl Smith, who was a salesman for General Mills, was traveling on a train to San Francisco in 1930. The dining car was closed, but because he was hungry, he asked the train's chef to make him something easy and quick. So the chef obliged by making him biscuits. How was this possible? Well, the chef told him that he used a pre-mixed blend of lard, baking powder, flour, and salt that he stored in his ice chest. From that batter, he could then make biscuits really quickly. Just like that, the salesman took his idea to the food scientists at General Mills where they produced a shelf-stable product that bears the same name today. Bisquick generated heaps of money for General Mills and they graciously shared some of this wealth with the chef from that fateful train to San Francisco. Well, they would have, but he died of cholera later that year. Remember, it was 1930.