Cold Beer and Ice Cream in the Old West?
They did! They really did have it. I could have survived back then after all! lol.
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
Well, actually the signs they used to advertise their beer said "Cool Beer" not cold beer! And even then it was a big luxury because back in the 1800's people were used to drinking their beer at room temperature. I know, these days it would take some getting used to, especially in the heat of summer.
Believe it or not most of the saloons did have ice though. They used to cut ice from frozen lakes and rivers and take it to specially built "ice houses" or caves or ice cellars and it would keep all summer.
Down in the deeper South they would bring it in on special ships from Canada or New England. They could also make ice with a chemical reaction using ammonia nitrate and there were ice companies in Southern California in the mid 1800's which did this.
It must have been expensive though because I haven't found any information on that in the traditional Western Territories like the Great Plains. But yes, even without modern refrigeration they had the ability to serve cool beer and make ice cream.
By the way, many of the Amish here in America still cut out blocks of ice from rivers and ponds:
I know people don't associate the Old Western town with ice cream and soda fountains but in the 1870's these were quite popular, especially with the ladies.
I know that when one of the famous descriptions of the gunfight at the OK Corral came out people thought it was a fraud because it said that the Earp brothers walked past an ice cream shop on their way to the corral and people didn't believe there was such a thing back then! lol.
But historians researched the town of Tombstone and sure enough, there was an ice cream shop on that street. It was more the ice cream sodas that became the rage and not just ice cream, that came later. They started their soda counters in drug stores or pharmacies and not saloons though.
Here is a great photo of an old soda fountain in Junction City, Kansas. The year was 1890:
The flavors listed on the left are as follows:
- Don't Care
- Coffee
- Nector
- Orange
- Banana
- Ginger
- Wildcherry
- Sarsparilla
And on right is listed:
- Chocolate
- Pineapple
- Rasberry
- Strawberry
- Lemon
- Vanilla
- Root Beer
And then at the bottom is Coca-cola which was being pushed as a health drink. Look at this wonderful ad from the 1890's for Coca-cola:
Wow, that stuff was miraculous back then! lol. Classy ad though. Ok, back to the soda. The ice cream soda waters were made with cold ingredients: cream, flavored syrups and soda water. All natural flavors of course.
Soda water machines were needed to create the drink, and they were really big like the one shown above. Around 1874, ice cream started being substituted for cream to create the new ice cream soda concoction.
Here's another one. I like the way they were so ornate with custom woodwork, just total class:
In 1879, owner of a confectionery in Fort Scott, Kansas by the name of Julius Cohn said "The boss new summer drink is ice cream soda…. It is just immense!"
And in 1882 the newspaper The Placer Herald described ice cream soda as "Ice cream and one soda in a moonlight sonata of perfect harmony.”
What's entertaining to me is that with the ladies going crazy over this new treat, you had all these rough cowboys taking their women to the soda fountain! lol. That image is just funny to me because I know that's what happened. And it had to lend some civility to the rough and tumble cow towns.
This one had to cost a fortune:
The advertisers knew the draw for the women. Here's an ad by one of them. "“Our chocolate ice cream soda beats them all. That’s what the ladies say, and they know,” Fehringer & Ash advertised in Ogden, Utah, in 1894.
Back then it may have been fattening but the flavors were all derived naturally, most from fruit. Here's a recipe from 1894:
Ice Cream Soda
- 1 to 3 tbsp of real fruit syrup
- 1 cup club soda
- 1 scoop ice cream
Combine syrup and club soda in a cup or bowl to make your flavored soda. The amount of syrup added depends on your taste. Gently whisk together. Place ice cream in a tall glass and top off with the flavored soda.
Here's a recipe for lemon ice cream that sounds pretty good:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine until sugar is dissolved. Freeze according to ice cream machine instructions. Makes one quart.
Thanks for reading folks, I hope you enjoyed this "more pleasant" aspect of the Old West than I usually talk about!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if...
this is a common saying in your house:
"Whoo hoo! Pork and beans again!"
No wonder all yet yankies are fat . They even had ice cream parlours in the Wild West . I heard it all now
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yes we are sir blanchy, well not me and Mrs. J but something like 80% are overweight. What, Ireland isn't overweight with all that beer drinking?
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I bet that ice cream tasted better than todays version. Mind you....I bet most things did. It must have cooled down a few hot heads and helped with civility. Interesting stuff.
Yes sir I agree, at least all the ingredients were organic with no chemical additives. Thank you for commenting sir steemonkey!
It would have been a real outing to go for an ice cream soda. Just to watch the machine in action would be interesting lol. I'll take a chocolate please :D
howdy tamaralovelace! Yes you are so right! It had to be the most pleasant experience to ever hit town. I bet they were delicious and they had no chemical taste!
Howdy Janton! Oh well, how did you found this unusual Wild West piece of history? How interesting! You know, I never tried cream soda, lol. It never crossed my mind that these two go together. I guess us Europeans have different taste. But I like the natural flavors for the sodas, they must of taste very good for sure, plus each mashine was piece of craftsmanship. Almost like an altar, in a church, lol.
And Coca Cola was a remedy for everything, lol. But you got to give it to the old Coce, it's still popular after all these years. People are stupid enough to keep drinking it, lol.
Howdy Miss Lena! So you're saying you liked the post? I think it was very interesting but then I would because the subject appealed to me. lol. The coke ad was gorgeous wasn't it? They make poison look so appealing! I think we got the soda drink from the French but I'm not positive on that fact.
Oh yes I liked it and ads are always appealing, until today, lol.
Based on Wikipedia, cream soda is not French "A recipe for cream soda—written by E. M. Sheldon and published in Michigan Farmer in 1852—called for water, cream of tartar (tartaric acid), Epsom salts, sugar, egg, and milk, to be mixed, then heated, and when cool mixed with water and a quarter teaspoonful of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to make an effervescent drink. It was suggested as a temperance drink preferable to those of "Uncle Bacchus" and in compliance with the recently introduced Maine law.[1]" read more here
Howdy again Miss Lena! Well that is very interesting! Epsom salt is one of the ingredients? Does that sound right? I'm sure it is. Someone should make that soda by following the recipe and see what it's like. I nominate you! lol.
Howdy Janton, maybe I will, sometimes at summertime, lol.
yes summertime would be perfect and if it's good I'll do a post or you can do a post about the old fashioned soda fountain drink!
Sounds like a plan. We can both do a post and make a dollar. I write a recipe and tag you and you write history and you tag me, lol.
ok that sounds good! Did you say what you are making for Christmas this year as far as food, if you have a big Christmas dinner at your daughter's house is there enough vegan things to eat or how do you handle that?
My very first job was in an old time soda fountain. I worked there all through my high school years and it was something of a novelty even in the late sixties. We made ice cream sodas and chocolate phosphates and all the goodies that you would ever associated with a soda fountain. The Sundaes that were on offer were incredible. We wore red and white candy striped uniforms that by the end of the day would be stiff with stickiness. I can remember stopping on a hot summer day of a furious pace of dipping ice cream to wash my hands because my fingers were stuck together. Chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping and nuts was my favorite sundae and we got one free during our breaks every afternoon. Vanilla cokes were my favorite beverage, made with two squirts of vanilla, and we could drink those free all day long, but we were often too busy to even slow down long enough to take a sip. I was never a big fan of sodas.
Our old soda fountain had been painted white and mainly served as a shelf to hold the old antique bottles with all the different colored flavorings. Our soda water and sundae toppings came out of restaurant grade stainless steel!
Oh that sounds wonderful Melinda! What a time you must have had. It had to have been the most popular place in town to stay that busy! All the kids hung out there probably. Hey, I liked this post but whenever I center a photo then everything is centered after that and it threw off my bullet markers on those lists of flavors, do you know how to make those bullets stay right next to the words?
I would suspect that it has to do with spacing. Or maybe if you create a break after the link for the photo < br > (do not include the spaces) that would start you off fresh? I'm not sure.
I'm not sure either, do we know anyone who is an expert at formatting posts? I'll keep asking people and eventually someone will know.
Did you try creating a break after the centered photo?
no, I guess I should go and edit that now and see if that works huh?
No, I guess I should
Go and edit that now and
See if that works huh?
- janton
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Interesting post and information. I didn't realize that ice cream, soda water and Coca Cola were already in fashion back then.
Howdy today sir Vincent! Yes sir, nobody did, that's why I had to educate them! lol..after I educated myself. I knew about the way they got their ice but didn't know they had soda drinks and ice cream way back then! Coke was invented in 1882.
Hey janton, a sweet piece of history here, ice-cream soda wow! Beer goes way back too. So there is much more to the good old West than the robbers and crime, lol.
howdy today angiemitchell! yes I think they helped to tame the West. I've never heard of one being robbed anyway! lol.
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