Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"? Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1,
I highly recommend that you do so
before reading this post which is Part 2.
You can read Part 1 by clicking here.

Continuing on through the reading that is helping me gain a better appreciation for my refrigerator, the next section of the book helped me realize just how new the home refrigerator was to the homemaker of 1927 when this book was published.

Click on the image below to enlarge for reading

Chilled fruit for breakfast; frozen ice cubes in water; firm butter squares or balls; crisp salads and frozen desserts... all were a novelty that one didn't usually enjoy at home. That is, until the home refrigerator came along. When I read this, I try to get into the head of the homemaker that suddenly had vast culinary horizons opened to her. How must that have been?

I've seen a lot of technological advances in my own lifetime, and the advent of the microwave oven is the only thing that I can think of in my personal experience that would be akin to the advent of the refrigerator for these women. I remember the first microwave oven we purchased for the family when I was 11 or 12 years old. I remember all of us huddling around it to witness the phenomenon of being able to boil a cup water in a minute. It was miraculous! The culinary possibilities seemed endless!

That's how it must have been for these women (and their families) that were being guided by this book (and others like it) through the uncharted waters of home refrigeration. The culinary possibilities must have seemed endless.

Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"?

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire a vintage recipe book that was originally published in 1927 by the General Electric Company entitled "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus: Specially prepared for the General Electric Refrigerator". It's a hardcover book and the original price printed on the title page reads "Price Two Dollars". I was pleased to find that it was authored by a Miss Alice Bradley whose is credited as being "Principal of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery, Cooking Editor of Woman's Home Companion, Author of : Cooking for Profit, Candy Cook Book, For Luncheon and Supper Guests" (that's some resume!).

What is so charming and wonderful about this book is how it instantly transports me back in time to the perspective of the "modern American homemaker" of the late-1920's and what new horizons she was enjoying with the invention and availability of home refrigeration.

I am so charmed by this, that I hope you'll indulge me over the next few posts as I share my reading with all of you. And since the original print is what lends it much of its charm, instead of re-typing the text I've decided to share scans of the original pages with you.

Click on the image to read it in an enlarged size

See what I mean? Reading these words has caused me to reflect on how much we take for granted in the kitchen. To the homemaker of the late 1920's, a fridge was "an Aladdin's lamp" and "a form of health and happiness insurance" for her family. Nowadays we just take that big square thing in the kitchen for granted. Who knew it was such a magical thing? Apparently our grandmothers did!

Click here to read Part 2 in this series