Look Inside the Door for Finest Refrigeration: 33 Prize Recipes

This pocket cookbook was put out by The Southern California Association of Ice Industries and features prize-winning recipes submitted by local contestants. 

 

Food and technology often go hand-in-hand, so it’s not unusual to see a cookbook promoting new advancements in the kitchen. What’s somewhat funny about this collection is that it’s actually promoting ICE refrigeration as superior to the then newly-introduced, freon-based refrigeration. Electric refrigerators entered the home market in the late 1920s, no doubt alarming the ice delivery companies who published this book. 

 

The cookbook promises that a new ICE refrigerator can cost as low as $24.50 -  “about $100 less than you would pay for a refrigerator of equal quality… trade in your old ice box as part payment.” It also lists presumed advantages to ice, including “noiseless,” “no imprisoned air,” and “cracked ice improves salads.” 

 

Although undated, this book is almost definitely from the 1930s. The prize-winning recipes were selected by home economist Nina G. Abbey (pictured), who often worked extensively with SoCal’s Union Ice Company during this time, conducting cooking demonstrations that showcased ice-based refrigerators. The SoCal ice companies were right to worried. In 1935, New Deal loans further encouraged Americans to make the switch to electric refrigeration and local ice-delivery services never fully recovered.

This recipe for "Lemon Cream" produces a tasty, chilled custard. I used kumquats instead of lemons because we had some in our garden and I think any citrus would work well. The blue eggs, pictured, were laid by Azur hens.