Other popular kitchen items included iceboxes (early refrigerators using blocks of ice) to keep perishable foods fresh. Wealthier homes had electric refrigerators, but they were still considered a novelty and expensive for many families. Stoves were either wood-burning, coal-burning, or gas-powered, with gas stoves becoming more common in urban areas. In addition, electric appliances like toasters and stand mixers started appearing in modern homes.

Many packaged food companies and appliance manufacturers distributed free recipe booklets instructing housewives how to make the most of these newfangled foods and gadgets, along with appropriate recipes to test and try them.  One example is the 1925 recipe book Famous Cooks' Recipes for Raisin Cookery by Sun Maid Growers of California, with recipes by domestic science specialists Alice Bradley, Belle De Graf, Sarah Field Splint and Caroline B. King. Chock-full of raisin recipes, from breads and muffins to cookies, cakes, candies and even some savory options, all feature the still-familiar Sun-Maid raisins in the bright red box. As stated in the preface, the recipes are “economical and unusual dishes from the simplest of ingredients: This is the joy of raisin cookery.”  

The one I wanted to highlight was Mrs. De Graf’s Raisin Penuche. Mrs. De Graf (whom the book calls “California’s most famous cook”) had a prolific career, including teaching food science throughout California, serving as Director of Domestic Science for the California Prune & Apricot Growers Assocation, head of the Domestic Science Department for the Sperry Flour Company, editor of The San Francisco Chronicle's Cooking Information page, syndicated in over fifty Pacific Coast newspapers, and author of Mrs. DeGraf’s Cook Book.