Pickles and Ice Cream

“Pickles and ice cream” is an odd combination of foods, famous for being just that. In the 1910s, “pickles and ice cream” was popularized as a strange combination of favorite foods that were probably inedible together.
 
Pregnant women often have food cravings, and the combination of “pickles and ice cream” became associated with pregnancy by at least the 1950s.
   
 
Yahoo! Answers
Pickles and Ice Cream?
I was watching the Progressive Insurance Commercial and the pregnant woman says, “Pickles and Ice Cream!” I just researched Pickles and Ice Cream and I found out pregnant women likes to eat it when they’re pregnant.
 
My real question is who the hell would eat pickles and ice cream? They do not go together and when Flo says “unicorns and glitter,” it made sense to me unlike pickles and ice cream.
 
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Like the other person said, pregnancy gives you the oddest cravings and makes you dislike things that you used to love.
 
Progressive
Flo Unicorns and Glitter Commercial
(...)
FLO: Big bundle. Home and auto together. It’s like peanut butter and jelly.
MAN: Or like burgers and fries.
WOMAN: Or pickles and ice cream.
FLO: Unicorns and glitter!
Man and woman shake their heads.
FLO: No?
 
Pickles & Ice Cream (Maternity Apparel)
Franchise Info
Pickles & Ice Cream is the largest and oldest maternity clothing franchise in the United States. Pickles & Ice Cream is a well-recognized name and the company has plans to grow by several new markets each season. And, we are in search of just the right partners as we continue to expand.
 
19 July 1915, Ogden (UT) Standard, “Little Fables of the Business World,” pg. 5, col. 6:
In the winter, you see, he hadn’t much Opportunity to exercise his Talents. About the most he could do then was to stop in front of a Trolley and Thumb his Nose at the motorman; or Get Gay with a Cop, or Eat Dill Pickles and Ice Cream.
 
29 August 1919, Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot, pg. 21 “Mutt and Jeff” comic:
Evidently Jeff Ate Some Pickles and Ice Cream Before Retiring Last Night.
   
24 June 1924, LeMars (IA) Semi-Weekly Sentinel, pg. 5, col. 4:
Problem in Chemistry
“What are you working over there?” asked a friendly friend. “Some abstruse problem in chemistry?”
 
“You might say so,” replied the druggist. “I’m trying to combine ice cream and pickles into a compatible mixture. It will make a fortune for me if I can put it across.”
   
18 January 1927, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, “A line o’ type or two,” pg. 10:
TELL ALL, too, that mixing minors and dominant sevenths is almost as bad a mixture as pickles and ice cream.
 
Google News Archive
31 May 1934, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, pg. 8, col. 1:
You Can Eat Pickles and Ice Cream at the Same Time,
Says Dr. Wilbur, Blasting Many Oldtime Food Theories
 
Google Books
Mrs. Astor’s Horse
By Stanley Walker
New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company
1935
Pg. 131:
In attempting to foist upon American kitchens a recipe for ice cream garnished with a sauce of chopped sweet pickles, the propagandist of one company explained: “For a dish of pickles and ice cream is a thrilling taste adventure that, unbelievable as it sounds. is the pinnacle of epicurean achievement.”
 
Google Books
Nutrition for You
By Robert S. Goodhart
New York, NY: Dutton
1958
Pg. 32:
Pickles and ice cream are an indigestible combination.
 
5 November 1958, New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune, “Sinus Cancer Cure Possible,” pg. 3, col. 3: 
But the pregnant mother, he admitted, still has cravings for strange foods such as sauerkraut or pickles and ice cream.
 
Google Books
Northwoods Doctor
By Bill Trent
Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott
1962
Pg. 56:
Other wives can surprise their husbands, but I’ll never get the chance to break the news with ice cream and pickles.
 
Google News Archive
2 February 1967, Lewiston (ME) Evening Journal, “This Mother-to-be Eats Tree Bark And Hums a Lot,” pg. 16, col. 5:
BOSTON (AP)—Most expectant mothers eat things like pickles and ice cream, but there’s one mother-to-be in Boston that prefers to eat tree bark and hum a lot.
(A Franklin Park Zoo dromedary—ed.)
 
Google News Archive
12 March 1968, Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel, “Sensible Rules Advised For Expectant Mothers,” pg. 5, col. 3:
NEW YORK (UPI)—Mothers-to-be are famous for their strange appetites and not the least of those is their voracious consumption of the printed word.
 
Women who scorn such film-famed delicacies as pickles and ice cream or midnight sauerkraut will read anything from textbooks to “how-to” tracts.
 
Google News Archive
25 February 1971, Warsaw (IN) Times-Union, “‘Pregnancy’ Is Theme For Van Dyke Television Special” by Cynthia Lowry, pg. 7, col. 1:
Every cliche of approaching motherhood was explored except the one involving pickles and ice cream.
     
Google Books
Pickles & Ice Cream:
The complete guide to nutrition during pregnancy
By Mary Abbott Hess and Anne Elise Hunt
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1982
Pg. 2:
Every one has heard “pickles and ice cream” stories about pregnancy. While pickles and ice cream, even together, won’t hurt you, they are not the best foundation for a prenatal diet.
 
Google Books
Pregnancy & Childbirth:
The complete guide for a new life
By Tracie Hotchner
New York, NY: Avon
1984
Pg. 107:
FOOD CRAVINGS are the perennial joke of pregnancy — ice cream and pickles and all that. A mineral deficiency may trigger cravings although the item craved may not be what’s missing.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
3rd rock from the sun. Pickles and ice cream
Author: John Lithgow
Publisher: [1998-01-28]
Edition/Format:  Film : Film Visual material : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Pickles & ice cream : a father’s guide to pregnancy
Author: Craig Bissinger
Publisher: Parsippany, NJ : Workfit Consultants, L.L.C., 2003.
Edition/Format:  Book : English