Q.
What’s your favourite kind of milkshake? If you’re looking to make a deluxe version at home, you can find all sorts of ice-cream filled drink tutorials online, and they have more than 3 million views. How did we find our wise way from plain old milk to marvellous milkshakes?

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A.
No matter how obscure the task – how to re-attach GI Joe’s legs, how to dress like a Hobbit, how to meow like a cat – You Tube has a tutorial.

But, decades before PayPal alumni Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim birthed their video-sharing behemoth, companies were offering how-to milk tutorials via silent film.

This 1940 gem comes to us courtesy of the City of Vancouver archives. Use of Milk Products is a full 7 minutes and 50 seconds on how to prepare a meal using milk, whipping cream, butter and sour cream. Jersey Farms silently tracks our bebelted housewife as she adds bottled milk to a can of tomato soup, traces the circumference of her bowls, whips and dollops her cream, and makes a tray of ice-cream in the freezer.

Her perfectly coiffed little boy doesn’t look so sure about his blue plastic bib or his all-milk birthday brunch. No matter. The video ends with a mysterious showing of the milk-lids ceremony, which takes place outside.

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But you’ll note: a most important milk product that this video does not feature is the milkshake.

Who invented this slurpy deliciousness? Well, that depends who and where you ask. Most would agree that Frederick J. Osius of Racine, Wisconsin – with his 1911 Patent  # 1,0005, 663 for the ‘Agitator Implement’ – is the father of the electric milkshake machine.

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As for our favourite milkshakes… in 2022, RTA Outdoor Living analyzed Google Trends data over the past year to unearth the most searched milkshake flavours across the U.S. It was strawberry for the win.

2022 Most Searched Milkshakes Across the U.S. RTA
i.   Strawberry
ii.  Chocolate
iii. Oreo Milkshake
iv.  Shamrock Shake
iv.  Vanilla Milkshake
vi.  Chocolate Malt Milkshake
vii.  Coffee Milkshake

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Photo: Olivie Strauss