I was excited when I found this 1950s aluminum ice cube tray. I couldn’t help but imagine a wealthy Palm Springs divorcee lounging poolside, brightly colored fingernails on her sun-leathered hands, levering ice cubes for a Tom Collins. The best thing about using aluminum is that it makes ice much faster. Plastic and rubber trays are quite inadequate, as they act as insulators between the freezing cold and the water.
1950s Aluminum Ice Cube Tray with Lever
And aluminum doesn’t just conduct the cold air in the freezer faster, it also makes the cubes melt faster so they’re easier to remove.
Redi-Cube Ice Cube Tray
Unfortunately, things become a little more complex when taking a closer look. For decades there has been a discussion about the possible link between Alzheimer’s and the use of aluminum kitchen utensils. The discussion came up in the 1960s when autopsies found unusually high amounts of aluminum in the brains of Alzheimer patients. But most scientist believe that the high aluminum concentrations are a result of the Alzheimer’s and not the other way around. To this date, no proof has been found for a link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s. (More at our article devoted to the subject of aluminum and health concerns.)
10 Comments
such a cool find. i love the silvery pink color of the aluminum. reminds me of the first gen ipod mini.
Beautiful photos. How did you take them?
Thanks. I actually didn’t take them. A friend of mine did. This is his website – steviemada.com
that reminds me of Indian thali which needs to be made out of bronze for the taste and health according to indian cuisine. there is some kind of chemical reaction. very interesting. so the new style of producing the platter of silver should not be followed.
Those brought me back.
My grandparents had those trays in use in their house when I was a kid.
I remember the crunching sound made by pulling up the lever and how the frozen metal would always stick to my fingers.
Thanks for that.
ok my dad dragged around this old fridge from his college days and would never let my mom get a new one…when i got my first apt after college he gave it to me as a gift. i was like….”ummm, thanks dad”. but the best thing about it was these ice trays. they consistently supplied the never ending need for beautiful ice cubes in my seemingly bottomless cups o booze.
I also remember, my grandparents used them. Haven’t seen them for a long time. Now you get the flexible silicone trays for easy removal of ice shapes. Revolutionary heat resistant non stick material…….. Have to look on fleamarkets for the old ones!
I have fond memories of my Grandmother having some of these. That was in the mid 70s in South Alabama.
Even if there is a link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s, I don’t think it’s from ice cubes, but more likely from cooking food – particularly acidic foods – in aluminum pans. Aluminum won’t react with water, as such, so I think the ice cubes are safe.
I love these things, by the way, and have been picking them up on eBay. They beat the cheap plastic ones all to hell in terms of functionality.
Thanks for the great photos, and the memories. We had these when I was a kid and I think they worked better than some of today’s plastic trays to break out the cubes. Of course, if you handled them with wet hands, the result was kind of like touching your tongue to a frozen pole.
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