How clever of Betty Crocker…
Imagine a powder, which when mixed with water, egg and oil – and then cooked – is magically transformed into brownies. That’s exactly what happens when you make brownies using a packet of Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix. And before you scoff in disdain at this food-lab conjuring trick – Betty Crocker’s marvellous mix makes a very good brownie. So good in fact, our family always used Betty Crocker rather than making brownies from scratch – just like millions of other families. So what makes the product so successful?
The technicians and marketers at General Mills could easily have created a powder that only required water to make a batter – so someone must have realised that a formula requiring the consumer to buy additional eggs and oil would make the product more appealing. And they were right, consumers are more gratified when they’re given the task of providing their own (additional) ingredients. It’s a carefully balanced scientific and psychological proposition: any fewer ingredients and the mix would appear too chemically efficient and leave the consumer with too little to do – any more ingredients and the consumer might feel they were being asked to buy too many key ingredients and do too much of the work. Furthermore, by adding their own eggs, the consumer will be providing their own homely goodness to a manufactured products. It’s a perfect trade-off between convenience and baking skills, chemistry and wholesomeness and company and cook.
Betty Crocker taught me to cook…
I loved making Betty Crocker brownies when I was young. It felt like I was really baking. Instructions had to be read, baking tins needed to be greased, ingredients measured, walnuts chopped, batter mixed, oven temperatures set, and at the end of the bake the all-important toothpick test for doneness (not too smudgy – not too clean). Dare I say it, I was learning to cook.
I have moved on from baking with packet mixes, but I still appreciate the positive influence Betty Crocker’s products can have on aspiring home cooks.