Blenders

The modern blender, a familiar electric appliance that blends, chops, grates, purees, and liquefies foods, was invented by Stephen Poplawski in 1922 to make soda fountain drinks. In 1935, the popular bandleader Fred Waring teamed up with the inventor Frederick Osius to improve the appliance, marketing the Waring Blender (originally Blendor) as a revolutionary bartending tool and meal preparation aid for hospital patients on special diets. By the 1950s, blender manufacturers’ cookbooks contained recipes for everything from soups and canapés to cakes and ice creams and, in a sign of the times, more than a few recipes for gelatin desserts and molded salads. The Blender Cookbook of 1961 promised to revolutionize Americans’ cooking habits with “exciting new ideas, short cuts, and magic recipes that will take the drudgery out of cooking and make it a pleasure.”